A retired Northumberland coal miner charged with murdering his wife of 52 years after a failed suicide pact, told his daughter he would kill himself at the first opportunity.
David Hunter worked as a coal miner in Northumberland for 40 years before retiring to Cyprus with his wife Janice. But now the 74-year-old is charged with her murder in December. He insists it was his terminally ill wife's wish to die.
David, who is currently in jail in the Cypriot capital Nicosia, is alleged to have suffocated leukaemia-stricken Janice before taking an overdose of prescription pills. However, he was found and survived. Now their daughter Lesley Cawthorne, 49, who is supporting her dad, has revealed his agony in an exclusive interview with the Mirror as he faces a life sentence unless the charge is reduced to assisted dying.
Read more: Retired Northumberland miner denies murdering his wife in Cyprus
Speaking to her from jail David told her last week: “I do not know how to live without her. I’m Janice’s husband, and without her, I don’t really know who I am.” He says he acted out of love for Janice, who would have turned 76 on March 30, with the day after marking the 57th anniversary of when the couple first met in a pub in Ashington.
Lesley said her mother had “begged” David to end her pain.
When Lesley first spoke to her father in a tearful call as he lay in a Paphos hospital in December, he told her: “I’m so sorry, I love you, but I want to be with your mum. I’m so sorry but as soon as I get a chance, I will kill myself.” Lesley begged him not to, saying she could not lose them both. “There are people out there doing bad things,” she says. “All my dad did was love someone.”
Janice was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2016. Both she and David had suffered heartbreak in the late 1980s that influenced their decision more than 30 years later, Lesley explained. Janice’s sister, Kath, died of leukaemia and Janice had vowed not to endure the same pain should she face a similar fate. David’s mother Rachel died of ovarian cancer, and Lesley recalls how she had asked her son: “Just make it stop David, I’m so tired.”
Lesley told the Mirror how her dad “talks to mum every night” from his cell, which he shares with nine other men. He dreams of his wife’s screams of pain as her blood cancer took hold. Lesley said: "He adored her. The only thing he really cared about was giving his family a nice life. Now it’s ended like this there’s a real possibility he will die alone in a foreign prison.
“I cannot bear the thought of anyone thinking badly of my dad, because my dad really is the loveliest of men.”
Lesley, a compliance consultant, calls her dad every day. “He’s sad and very lonely,” she said. But in his better moments, he tells how he longs to be back in Ashington and to walk along the beach.
“He talks about mum all the time. He tries to remember the good times and looks back on family holidays.”
Janice’s side of the family fully supports David, Lesley said. “They just want him home – they love him. Mum begged him for a long time (to assist her death) and was very clear about what she wanted. She was very much of the opinion that we have autonomy over our bodies.”
David had told Lesley that Janice asked him to help her to die but she said: “My dad was very good at reassuring me. They never really let on how bad she was.” She says her parents suffered with Covid lockdowns, which she claims made it harder to get medical support.
David will face a life sentence in Cyprus for a murder charge, while assisted suicide carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. He pleaded not guilty to murder in a February court hearing in Cyprus.
Lesley is currently raising funds for legal fees via the Crowd Justice website with the total at £14,000 so far. But time is running out, as David’s trial in Paphos begins on April 18.
Michael Polak, of UK-based Justice Abroad, is representing David. The group has written to the island’s attorney general to ask for the charge to be downgraded. “We will be doing everything we can to get David home,” he said. “It is in the public interest that he does not spend the rest of his life in prison. Nobody I’ve spoken to in Cyprus believes David Hunter should be on trial for murder.”
Police turned up at Lesley’s door in Norwich on December 18 to explain the situation in Cyprus. David had called his brother after taking an overdose and asked him to “look after Lesley”. His brother contacted UK police, who contacted Interpol and David was soon found.
It is unclear if a note was left as items taken from the home have not yet been given to the defence.
The next day David explained to Lesley that her mum had been in constant agony, and felt she had lost all her dignity.
