‘I’m hoping the judges will show us compassion’: Daughter of British expat accused of murdering his terminally-ill wife issues emotional plea to Cyprus court to free her father and urges them to ‘help put my family back together’
- Judges in Cyprus are set to reveal their verdict in case of David Hunter on Friday
The desperate daughter of a British expat accused of murdering his terminally-ill wife has issued an emotional plea to judges in Cyprus to free her father and ‘help put my family back together’.
David Hunter has spent 19 months caged in a Cypriot jail cell alongside 11 other hardened prisoners after suffocating his wife Janice, 74, in December 2021.
The retired miner, 76, said his wife was battling blood cancer and had begged him to end her suffering, with his lawyers claiming the death was an assisted suicide. But he was charged with murder, with three judges in Cyprus to decide his fate on Friday.
In a tearful plea ahead of tomorrow’s verdict, David and Janice’s daughter Lesley Cawthorne begged Cypriot judges to ‘show us compassion’ as she insisted her father took the life of his wife of 52-years in an act of mercy.
Holding back tears, a visibly emotional Lesley told Good Morning Britain: ‘I’m trying to brace myself for the worst but I’m really hoping for the best. I’m hoping that the judges will show us some compassion and they’ll help me put my family back together and they’ll give my dad back to me.’
David Hunter (left) has spent 19 months caged in a Cypriot jail cell alongside 11 other hardened prisoners after suffocating his wife Janice (right), 74, in December 2021.
In a tearful plea ahead of tomorrow’s verdict, David and Janice’s daughter Lesley Cawthorne (pictured on Good Morning Britain today) begged Cypriot judges to ‘show us compassion’
Mr Hunter smothered his 74-year-old wife after she ‘begged’ him to kill her before taking a drugs and alcohol overdose at their retirement home in Tremithousa, near Paphos.
READ MORE: 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.
If convicted of murder, the former miner from Ashington, Northumberland, would face a mandatory life sentence.
Ms Cawthorne said she was ‘not feeling very optimistic’ ahead of the court’s decision.
She said her father was ‘anxious, tired and lonely’ and the past 19 months had ‘taken a huge toll on him’ and left her family ‘devastated’ and ‘heartbroken’.
Lesley told GMB: ‘I want my dad to come home. I love my dad. I have no doubt that he was helping my mum in the way she wanted to be helped.
‘They were together for over 50 years. They were in love. They were happy. They had a good marriage. My dad is a good, good man and I want him home because that’s what my mum would want, what I want and it’s what we need as a family.’
Mr Hunter attempted to take his own life after suffocating his wife but was saved by medics. During his trial at Paphos assize court, harrowing footage of the moments shortly after the incident were shown.
David Hunter has been locked away for 19 months after suffocating his wife, who was terminally ill with blood cancer. His lawyers say the killing was an assisted suicide
In it, daughter Lesley is seen calling her father and desperately telling him: ‘You cannot leave me.’
An emotional David watched in court as the video showed Lesley screaming for him to survive.
‘Daddy, just concentrate on me,’ she begged. ‘Forget about everybody else and concentrate on me.
‘Daddy you love me, you know you do, I’m your girl. I’m your little girl daddy.
‘I remember how you walked me down the aisle and you said I was beautiful.
‘You cannot leave me daddy. I beg you.
‘We really love you – we do not care what you have done. We just want you safe.’
Speaking today, Lesley said the family had struggled to deal with the ‘minefield’ of the Cypriot legal system.
The grieving daughter also revealed that her parents had tried to ‘protect’ her from how gravely ill and in pain her mother was.
She told GMB they never told her how much pain Janice was in and that she had wanted to die. She added they ‘dodged’ her calls and ‘FaceTime requests’ in the weeks before her mother’s death.
Custody vans arrive at Paphos District Court in Cyprus where David Hunter, from Northumberland, is appearing accused of murdering his terminally ill wife, Janice Hunter
‘They have always been the type of parents who wanted to protect me… they kept that going until the end. It’s one of the things that makes it so hard because I didn’t know. If I’d have known maybe things would have ended differently. But they just wanted to protect me,’ Lesley said.
Since being jailed, David has been able to speak to his family ‘five or six times a week’ Lesley said, adding the last time the pair spoke was on Tuesday.
But she warned the toll of the trial and the loss of his wife had left Mr Hunter devastated.
‘My dad is bereft, and he is lost without my mum. He doesn’t really know who he is without my mum,’ she said.
Describing the conditions in his jail cell, Lesley added: ‘It’s very hard for him. He is 76. He is not in the best of health. He spent 40 years down a mine. That takes its toll on your health.
‘He’s been through an enormous trauma. He’s grief stricken. He’s away from his family, he is sharing a cell with 11 other men who don’t speak English so he is lonely. He is doing his very best to keep himself together but it’s hard.’
Ms Cawthorne said the family had been ‘worn down’ by the long trial and the court’s earlier ruling that a confession her father made when he was arrested could be used as evidence against him.
The pensioner’s defence team argued his confession should have been inadmissible and claimed he was suffering from a mental health disorder at the time, but a judge found Mr Hunter was lucid and dismissed the application.
Giving evidence in May, Mr Hunter told the District Court in Paphos he would ‘never in a million years’ have killed his wife unless she had asked him to, adding: ‘She wasn’t just my wife, she was my best friend.’
Ms Cawthorne said her parents were ‘each other’s best friends’ who had ‘built this lovely life together’.
A decision over the case is due to be announced tomorrow.
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