David Hunter, the man who was convicted of manslaughter in 2023 after killing his seriously ill wife, died on Thursday at the age of 78.

He had been rushed to hospital on Wednesday, with sources having told the Cyprus Mail at the time that he had been admitted to hospital due to heart failure.

A British miner who retired to Cyprus, Hunter suffocated his wife Janice in their home in the Paphos district village of Tremithousa in December 2021, saying that he had done so to end her suffering, as she had been diagnosed with a terminal form of blood cancer.

He stood trial for premeditated murder and spent 19 months incarcerated while the trial was ongoing, but was released at the trial’s conclusion after only being convicted of manslaughter.

The manslaughter conviction carried a two-year jail sentence, and given the length of time he had spent incarcerated, he was immediately released.

The panel of three judges which presided over the case stated in its decision that “we are not facing a usual case” and that “this is not a case of acting out of animosity or differences between two people that lead to someone taking another’s life”.

“Before us is a unique case of taking human life on the basis of feelings of love, with the aim of relieving a person of their suffering that came due to their illness,” the decision read.

They added that “there may never have been a case like this in Cyprus, at least not in court, where someone took the life of a loved one under these conditions”.

Later, the attorney-general appealed the verdict, but the case was never returned to a court.

After being released, Hunter continued to live in Tremithousa, remaining in Cyprus so as to be close to his late wife’s grave.

Of his death, his daughter Lesley Cawthorne told British newspaper the Daily Mirror that “we are devastated, and the support over the last few years has meant the world to us”.