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Trial of Briton who killed terminally ill wife postponed

paphos court
File photo: The Paphos court

The trial of a 74-year-old British man who confessed to killing his wife last December in their home in Tremithousa in Paphos, was put back to September 19, 2022.

David Hunter admitted to killing his wife Janice, 75, who was suffering from leukaemia because he said he could not bear to see her suffer.

In his confession to the police, he said he suffocated the woman by blocking with his hands her mouth and nose while she was sitting in an armchair.

Cyprus police were alerted by Interpol after Hunter had sent a message to a family member abroad telling them he had killed his wife because she was suffering from a terminal illness and that he would end his own life.

CID sergeant Andronikos Tsapis is expected to testify at the rescheduled trial in September. In the meantime, the man will remain in custody.

On Tuesday, Hunter’s daughter, Lesley Cawthorne, gave a lengthy interview to Sky News, urging the judges to “show compassion” to his father.

“My dad is not a risk to society,” Cawthorne said. “He told me what happened and I have no reason to disbelieve him or to think anything other than he’s telling me the truth.

“My mum made her wishes clear and my dad helped her. She just wanted it to end. She didn’t want to fight. She didn’t want treatment or a long, protracted death. She’d had enough and she just wanted to go.”

The man’s daughter added that her father, who moved to the island with his wife 20 years ago after retirement, instructed his lawyers to ask the prosecution for the charge to be reduced to assisting suicide, but the request was refused.

Moreover, she said that, since his arrest he had been sharing a cell with up to 11 other men.

“He is very, very fragile right now,” Cawthorne told Sky News. “”He’s haunted in his sleep by memories of her screaming in pain.

“He’s in a very bad way, lonely and frightened. He is not going to survive 10 or 15 years in prison.”

As reported by Sky News, Hunter’s lawyer Michael Polak, the director of Justice Abroad which is supporting the 74-year-old, said defence lawyers had urged the judges to clear the Briton of murder.

He said he wrote a 14-page request, drawing on case law from around the world, arguing that Hunter should not face a murder charge.

“It is quite clear to anyone who looks at the case that this is not a case where murder is the most appropriate charge,” Polak said.

“It would be great if the attorney general changed his mind with regards to the charging decision. We don’t think David deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison in Cyprus. He’s a good man.

“No one – even people in Cyprus I’ve spoken to – thinks he deserves to be on trial for murder,” Polak concluded.

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