Murder-accused pensioner says wife begged to die

[Jojogu]

A British pensioner accused of murdering his ill wife has told a court in Cyprus she begged him to help end her life.

Janice Hunter, who was 74 and had cancer, died in December 2021 at home near Paphos.

Lawyers for her 75-year-old husband David, a retired Northumberland miner, say her death was assisted suicide.

Mr Hunter has admitted killing his wife but a plea deal on a lesser charge of manslaughter collapsed in December.

The trial has previously heard Mrs Hunter had a rare blood cancer but might not have had terminal leukaemia.

Giving evidence - at times tearfully - her husband said she asked repeatedly for help to end her suffering but that he "just couldn't do it".

He said he "regretted" what "I had to do".

After his wife told him she was "sick of being alive" he reluctantly acted, he told the court.

"In the last four or five weeks, she asked me to help and I said 'no' every day," he told his trial.

"She asked me all the time and I always said 'no' - I didn't want to do it.

"After 57 years together, I just couldn't do it. In the last week she just cried and just cried and begged me to help her. I didn't answer."

Mr Hunter said his wife told him she felt she had "no life" due to her repeated trips between hospital and home.

He told the court at one point she became "hysterical" and to calm her down he said he would help end her suffering even though he said he had no intention of doing so.

'Mind switched off'

However, on the day of her death, he said he had got up to make coffee and his wife was crying.

Asked by the defence barrister what he remembered, he said his "mind switched off - I never wanted to kill her".

He added he then suffocated his wife with his hand.

"I don't even know how I thought about it," he said.

"I don't know how long I kept my hands there for. She did not attempt to stop me.

"In my statement I said that she was resisting but she wasn't. She was moving her head. I don't even think she opened her eyes."

Asked about his feelings for her, Mr Hunter said he loved his wife and added: "I regret what I had to do.

"I would never help her take her life if she hadn't begged me."

As he recounted his wife's final few weeks, he said: "She cried. She couldn't do nothing. She couldn't move.

"She was sleeping in the leather chair downstairs and for the last week we slept down on those chairs together."

Responding to a question from defence lawyer Ritsa Pekri, Mr Hunter said his wife had been unable to look after herself.

"The last two or three days, she said she couldn't 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."

Under cross-examination, Mr Hunter said he had been hoping for a "small miracle" to help his wife's health improve and that she would change her mind about wanting to die.

He said: "My mind was full 24 hours a day thinking of my wife. She was lying in pain, suffering, I couldn't do anything to help her.

"I wanted her to change her mind. I kept saying it's not easy [to help someone die], you can't just do something like that.

"I had no intention of killing her."

Asked by the prosecution why he had told a doctor he had decided to end his wife's life but not tell her in case she changed her mind, Mr Hunter said he was "under so much pressure" and there were some things he could not remember as a result of a stroke.

He said he had told his wife that if she did die, he would have to take his own life, saying to her: "I don't want to be without you for the rest of my life."

Earlier in the trial, the court heard Mr Hunter contacted his brother on Facebook to say he had killed Janice and then tried to take his own life at their home in Tremithousa.

Cypriot police were alerted by Interpol in the UK shortly before 20:00 GMT on 18 December 2021.

Officers arrived at the couple's retirement property and Mr Hunter was taken to hospital and later arrested.

The couple had moved from Ashington to Paphos 20 years ago.

Additional reporting by PA Media.

BBC News

 

[Tuurngait]

I saw that, really sad. I don't know how anyone can see someone terminally ill as not having the right to assisted suicide, particularly because they either have to agree to die horribly by not consenting to help or agree to help and have prolonged pain. It's like a horrible roundabout way of assisted suicide at the moment in the UK, you're only 'allowed' to die horribly of your illness but it's deemed too immoral to help speed that along and make it less painful and humane.

 

[Valky]

This is so incredibly sad and heartbreaking to read. Honestly, I am very sad that his own attempt failed. He deserves to be with his wife. I can't imagine the pain and guilt he must feel now, especially after not being able to follow her.

I understand both their actions. It is incredibly sad that the woman was so desperate, she begged her own husband to kill her. I think her husband did it out of love and of course pressure. You want what's best for your partner and seeing them suffer like that does unimaginable things to the human mind.

Fact is, that all could have been avoided if only assisted suicide would be available for all countries.

 

[TAW122]

This is one story out of many that shows how the lack of assisted-suicide leads to a horrible, painful death. I agree with others on here, if assisted-suicide legal in all countries, then stories like these would be much less common and people can die with peace and dignity. It is cruel that not only does society deny assisted-suicide to people like this couple, but also prosecutes those who aid someone (who is severely ill and likely to die a horrible death) in hastening their (inevitable) death.

 

[FuneralCry]

That whole situation is just so horrible, it's inhumane to deny people the option of a peaceful, dignified death and just expect them to be slaves to their suffering until they die anyway. Suicide should be viewed as a human right as there are an unlimited amount of ways in which existence can torture people, humans deserve to have the option to peacefully and reliably prevent future suffering, it just proves that this world is hell when even terminally ill people are denied that, all that denying the option of assisted suicide does is makes it so people experience extreme pain unnecessarily all for the sake of it.

 

[Forever Sleep]

That poor man. Everything about this case suggests that he loved his wife and (naturally) couldn't bear to see her suffer every day. It's utterly inhamane to both the patient and their loved ones to just leave them to struggle like that.

It sounds like they were left in circumstances where they simply couldn't take it anymore. If assisted suicide was available- she could have gone out peacefully. He wouldn't have had to make that colossal decision on his own and he wouldn't have to now face the consequences- both psychological and legal. It really will be a crime if he ends up going to prison but I don't know how lenient they are with things like this.

That's not to say there likely are one or two REAL muders where spouses try to pass it off as a mercy killing. Still- if assisted suicide in a clinic was available- surely they would reduce in number. If there was a regulated procedure in place to allow for assisted dying- just think of all the investigations that could be saved following suspicious deaths and individual suicides.

I feel so bad for that man though. I expect it was a mercy killing and I actually think that's the most compassionate thing you can do for a loved one who is suffering. It goes against all your own selfish desires to hold on to them and lands you in so much legal trouble. I really hope he gets a fair and compassionate trial/jury/judge.

 

[betternever2havbeen]

So he had NO help whatsoever in her care? Doesn't surprise me, we got left in the same position. Looking back now I realise how wrong it was. Hospice wasn't interested in taking my dad (6 month waiting list-he would've been long gone in 6 months, a lot of terminal people would so what's the point) the doctor didn't even wanna come out the morning he died, couldn't be arsed-didn't think he sounded bad enough to warrant a visit. It's even worse since Covid, they just don't want to come out. He had to come out later that day to declare him dead. I remember thanking him when I should've asked why the hell he didn't come out earlier.

All this could be prevented with assisted suicide or at least far more help for family in this position. This is the major reason I'm suicidal right now, because of the positions I've been put in with no support with dying loved ones.

 

[SilentSadness]

This is such a clear case for the need for assisted suicide, how people could look at this and say she shouldn't have the right to die is insane to me.