In the hills above Paphos, at the end of a cul-de-sac in the village of Tala, Chris Jones is giving a guided tour of what has become his life’s work: transforming a two-storey villa into a palliative care facility.
As the late afternoon sun shimmers over the sea beyond, Jones, a retired headmaster, points out the areas that will soon become the hospice’s lift and nurses’ station, oxygen and buzzer systems.
“We’re already getting calls,” he says, taking in the spectacular view from a sandstone arch looking on to the villa’s terrace. “It’s been like walking through treacle obtaining the permits but now I’m delighted to say we’re there.”
The Welshman, who settled in this corner of Cyprus with his wife, Trish, almost two decades ago, has waited for this moment for a very long time. His manner is naturally ebullient but he does have one regret. “If only we had been up and running when Janice Hunter was so ill,” he says. “It could all have been so different if we had been able to offer her care and pain relief, and David psychological support.”
Instead, a year ago today David Hunter, a retired miner born and bred in Northumberland who had retired to Paphos, did what his cancer-stricken wife allegedly beseeched him to do: he stood behind her armchair in the living room of their home in Tremithousa and pressed hard against her mouth and nose with both hands until she died.
Hunter subsequently told police it had taken him about 15 minutes to “save her by killing her”, ending what had become unbearable physical pain for the 74-year-old, diagnosed years earlier with leukaemia, the blood disease that had also killed her sister.
He then attempted to take his own life by swallowing prescription pills and alcohol, after messaging his brother in the UK to say what he had done.
By the time emergency services, alerted via Interpol, arrived at the rented maisonette, Hunter was sprawled on the floor, the lifeless body of his teenage sweetheart, Janice, slumped next to him in a white leather chair.
For the couple it was the end of a “dream life” abroad. On a balmy night before Christmas, the quiet village had become the backdrop for a mercy killing whose ramifications are still being felt. In a region that is home to by far the largest concentration of expats on the Mediterranean island – few events have caused so much disquiet.
A year on, incarcerated in Nicosia’s overcrowded prison and accused of premeditated murder, Hunter, 76, has no idea what lies in store. What he does know – more than a dozen court appearances later – is that a momentary decision has propelled him into the eye of a storm in a way he could never have envisaged.
In an Orthodox Christian country where euthanasia is not only taboo but positively outlawed, the case has pushed the boundaries of the law, testing a justice system that has been forced, for the first time, to deal with assisted suicide.
“It’s sensitive,” state prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou told the Observer. “We don’t want to send the wrong message. We don’t want to [convey] the message that it is justifiable for someone to kill their loved one because they are sick and in pain.”
The sensitivity became apparent in Paphos district court last week, when Hadjikyrou requested an adjournment – the second in 10 days– citing the need for Cyprus’s attorney general, the country’s highest legal authority, to further study the case file.
At stake is the change of plea both sides have formally agreed to discuss. This would allow Hunter to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and avoid him spending the rest of his life behind bars.
The once burly northerner – now several stone lighter because “prison food really doesn’t agree with me” – sat in the courtroom, his gold wedding ring visibly loose, his hair slicked back, his arms and legs crossed, watching pensively as the proceedings unfolded.
An entire year of frustration has become hard to contain. “I just want this over and done with,” he murmured during a recess ordered by Michalis Droussiotis, the district judge tasked with hearing the case. “There have been so many times I’ve got up at 5am to make the long journey down here in the [police] van. I just want to be able to plan, get on with my life, get settled close to where my wife is buried.”
On 20 December Hunter will make the journey again when the three-member tribunal reconvenes. The Briton’s legal team hope it will be the last substantive hearing, with the change of plea being accepted and mitigation arguments made before a sentence is announced at a later date.
“There’s no precedent for this type of case in Cyprus,” says Michael Polak, whose legal aid group Justice Abroad is coordinating Hunter’s defence. “The court will have to look to similar cases in other common-law countries and if it does that, which we hope it will, a suspended sentence is a distinct possibility.”
Throughout, the Briton has had the support of his daughter Lesley Cawthorne, who has described her father as the incarnation of love in a marriage that lasted 56 years.
As her mother’s health deteriorated – a process exacerbated by the pandemic making it almost impossible to access proper treatment – Janice repeatedly appealed to her husband to end her suffering. Cawthorne says he resisted her pleas for a long time.
Back in Tala, Jones has “nothing but empathy” for Hunter, a man of his own age who similarly elected to spend his last years in Cyprus.
“An act of love,” he says, “should not be treated in the same way as a deliberate act of violence. Ethically, I may not agree with euthanasia, but it is very clear that this was just that – an act of love.”
