Brit accused of murdering his terminally-ill wife in Cyprus ‘always did everything he could to help her’ and ‘her great wish was not to go to hospital’, their neighbours tell trial
- David Hunter, 75, is accused of murdering his wife Janice, 74, in Cyprus
- He has told the court how she begged him to put an end to her suffering
A British pensioner accused of murdering his terminally ill wife in Cyprus always did everything he could to help her, a court heard on Tuesday.
David Hunter, 75, last week told the Paphos criminal trial how he took the heartbreaking decision to end the suffering of his 74-year-old wife Janice.
He told how his teenage sweetheart was reduced to wearing nappies, was covered in skin lesions and could no longer stand from her devastating blood cancer.
Now, the final two witnesses in the trial have taken the stand, telling the court how Janice’s condition deteriorated in the last years of her life and how she became increasingly depressed.
Through it all, they said, Mr Hunter remained a loving husband.
David Hunter (left) smothered his wife, Janice, in 2021 at their retirement home in Cyprus. Last week, he told the Paphos criminal trial how he took the heartbreaking decision to end her suffering from devastating blood cancer
The final two witnesses in the trial took the stand today, telling the court how Janice’s condition deteriorated in the last years of her life, how she became increasingly depressed, and that Mr Hunter was a loving husband. Pictured: David and Janice Hunter seen on their wedding day (file photo)
‘Janice often told us that her great wish was not to be taken to the hospital. And I think David made this possible,’ Helmut Kesting, a neighbour of the British couple, told the court today.
According to the Cyprus Mail, Kesting has lived with his wife in the island country since 2020. He described Mr Hunter as a ‘quiet, reliable and reasonable man.’
‘He and Janice always were very helpful and friendly to us,’ he said.
Kesting described to the court how David and Janice were very loving with one-another, saying they were very proud of the relationship they shared.
‘They invited us to their home and showed us a lot of pictures, photo albums of their past trips. I never heard shouting or fights. I believe they were in full harmony together,’ Kesting told the court, the publication reported.
However, he said it was noticeable by 2021 – in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic – that Janice had become ‘more and more depressed’ having been ‘optimistic’ about her condition a year earlier.
He said that he and his wife had no contact with Janice in her final three or four moths, as she did not wish to speak with anyone.
The Cyprus Mail reported that Kesting reacted negatively when he was asked whether Mr Hunter had ever complained of taking care of Janice.
Janice’s hairdresser Anna Isaia also took the stand.
The news outlet said Isaia struggled to maintain her composure as she spoke of seeing Janice for the last time ‘on the Wednesday before it happened’.
She told the court how Janice would often speak of how she was in severe pain, particularly in her final three months. During this time, Isaia said Janice had told her she couldn’t sleep at night from the pain.
‘I think she realised she didn’t have long left. Last time I saw her she was really sad and cried,’ she told the court, the Cyprus Mail reported.
‘She lost a lot of weight. She was getting worse, struggling to move and walk.’
The hairdresser said Janice would visit the salon where she worked every two weeks, and that David would always accompany her.
She said David was ‘very polite, he loved Janice a lot. It showed, he was very caring and loving. When we heard about what happened we didn’t believe it. We never thought such a thing could happen.’
The final arguments will be heard by the court on June 22.
Mr Hunter (pictured in March, 2023) made his first statement in court last week and was visibly shaking as he gave evidence. He described how he took the devastating decision to end the suffering of his wife at their home in Cyprus
Janice died at the home she shared with David in December 2021. Mr Hunter has admitted to suffocating her to death, saying he did so after she ‘begged’ him to do so in order to end her on-going suffering. Mr Hunter went on to attempt suicide, taking drugs and alcohol with the aim of overdosing.
READ MORE EXCLUSIVE: Brit locked up in Cyprus with expat, 75, who killed his wife in ‘suicide pact’ says it is ‘disgusting’ he is being prosecuted for murder because ‘it was done out of love’
But medics managed to revive him before he was arrested on suspicion of pre-meditated murder – and he has since languished in a high-security jail in Nicosia.
Appearing in court last week, Mr Hunter – a retired miner – said he was forced to treat his wife himself at home due to Covid restrictions as her health deteriorated.
He told the court his wife was left crying out in agony 24 hours a day.
He broke down in tears as he told the court how he killed his wife after she ‘begged’ him for six weeks.
He said: ‘I don’t remember a lot of the last day. I went to make a cup of coffee and she started crying.’
He described how he went to the kettle and gripped the bench for support as his wife sat sobbing next door.
‘The next thing I knew I put my hands on her,’ he said, wiping tears from his eyes. ‘When it was finished, she was a grey colour. She didn’t look like my wife, and it was the first time I cried in many years.’
He described how he stood by her side and put his left hand on her nose and right hand over her mouth to smother her.
When prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou suggested that Mrs Hunter struggled and scratched him as he smothered her, Mr Hunter told him: ‘She never struggled, she never moved. You are talking nonsense.’
Mr Hadjikyrou then suggested Mr Hunter had planned to kill his wife and did not tell her, to which he replied: ‘I would never in a million years take my wife’s life if she had not asked me.
‘She wasn’t just my wife, she was my best friend.’ He added: ‘She wasn’t crazy, you haven’t seen the strain of the last six years, what she’s gone through.
‘The situation, the pressure. I wouldn’t like anyone to go through the last six months we both went through.’
The prosecutor responded: ‘Mr Hunter, there are people that go through much worse pain.’
Mr Hunter said he didn’t tell the doctors of his wife’s suicidal wishes because she asked him not to, fearing they would take her into hospital. He didn’t tell their daughter because he didn’t want to ‘worry’ her.
After the cross examination finished, Mr Hunter asked to address the judge. He told him: ‘My wife was suffering and she actually said, ‘I don’t want to live anymore,’ and I still said no.
‘Then she started to become hysterical. I was hoping she would change her mind. I loved her so much. I did not plan it, I swear to God.’
Giving evidence for the first time after over 20 appearances in 18 months, he said: ‘For six weeks she asked if I could help her. For six weeks I refused.’
David Hunter with his wife Janice and daughter Lesley (left)
Describing her agony, he told Paphos District Court: ‘She was lying down, she was in pain, suffering. I would do anything to help her. The last thing on my mind was to take her life. The last thing.’
Asked how the last few days were, Mr Hunter said: ‘She was crying, crying, crying, begging, begging, begging.
‘She wasn’t taking any care of herself. The last two or three weeks she could not move her arms and had trouble with her legs, she couldn’t balance.
‘She was only eating soup, she couldn’t hold anything down. She lost a lot of weight. She lost so much weight that there was no flesh to put her injections in.’
He said in those final days he was ‘thinking about what to do 24/7’ before finally taking the decision to go through with it when she once more started crying out in pain.
Mr Hunter said: ‘I remember that I had my hand on her mouth and nose. I don’t even know how I thought about it. I don’t know how long I kept my hands there for.
‘She did not attempt to stop me… I don’t even think she opened her eyes.’
After she died, he kissed her forehead and told her he loved her, before confessing to his brother who alerted the police. He said he cannot remember being arrested or giving interviews to police.
In cross examination, prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou said: ‘I put it to you that you had decided to kill her and there was no common consent, and that you just had to decide what day to kill her on.’
Mr Hunter replied: ‘No, I never intended to kill her. I had hoped for eight or nine days that she would get better, that she would change her mind.’
He added: ‘The last thing on my mind was to take her life – the last thing,’ before pointing to the prosecutor and saying: ‘That’s his idea, that’s not my idea.’
Earlier he told how he met his wife when she asked him for a dance at a miners’ hall party in Northumberland.
‘She came up to me and said, ‘You’re sitting in my seat.’ I hadn’t ever seen such a beautiful woman,’ he said.
From there, they were always together, he said, and they married in St John’s Church in Ashington in 1969.
Asked how their marriage was, he said: ‘Perfect.’ He told how he worked seven days a week in the mine to pay for their only child, Leslie, to become the first member of the family to go to university.
Police custody vans arrive at Paphos District Court owhere David Hunter is on trial (May 15)
He and his wife would visit Cyprus on holidays and bought a property there in 1999 before moving across two years later to retire there.
Mr Hunter said: ‘The first 16 years before she got sick, apart from a few operations, it was absolutely fantastic.’
But Mr Hunter suffered a stroke in 2015 and it was on regular trips to the hospital for his treatment that a doctor noticed his wife was looking very pale.
She was diagnosed with blood cancer and had to go to the capital Nicosia every week for procedures and injections.
As her condition deteriorated she asked to go to Paphos General Hospital because she couldn’t face the journeys, but when Covid hit it was closed and so they kept her injections in their fridge and self-medicated.
Mr Hunter told how he called the hospital five times a day but there was no answer, and he was forced to travel to centres further away for help and supplies.
She had two 125 euro injections per week but started suffering side effects including diarrhoea, headaches, dizziness and nose bleeds.
Mrs Hunter’s haemoglobin levels were such that she was unable to take painkillers and was left in agony at home, unable to move.
In her last months she underwent a series of operations for skin lesions on her face and hands, as well as a knee operation and another for her collarbone.
Speaking after his hearing, Mr Hunter told the press he was happy to finally give his account after waiting for 18 months.
‘I got my say, this is what I wanted,’ he said. ‘To tell them things that they never even thought about.
‘For six weeks when she was asking me, it was 24 hours. She was my wife, my best friend.
‘The last six months, I wouldn’t like anyone to go through that. Prison is nothing compared to what we went though.’
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