The daughter of a British expat cleared for murdering his terminally ill wife in Cyprus today has revealed her relief after a ‘suicide pact’ note helped her father’s murder acquittal.
‘My dad’s not a murderer. My dad’s never been a murderer. Now everybody knows that,’ Lesley Cawthorne told MailOnline after her father David Hunter was found not guilty of the pre-meditated murder for ending the suffering of his childhood sweetheart Janice, 74.
Mr Hunter, 75, who has spent 19 months in a Cypriot jail, was convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter by a judge in Cyprus which could see him walk away with a suspended sentence. He will learn his fate at Paphos District Court next Friday.
An apparent suicide note written by Hunter proved crucial in the British pensioner being dramatically cleared of murder.
A blue notebook and pen were found in his house with a message in it seemingly left for those who would find Mr Hunter and his wife Lesley’s bodies.
After the verdict was read out Mr Hunter welled up in tears and told friends ‘I’m happy – elated’. He was pictured visibly emotional and he raised his hands in the air as he was led out of the court.
David Hunter, 75, waves his arms to waiting media as he leaves court after being cleared of murdering his wife Janice, 74
David Hunter, originally from Northumberland, was accused of murdering his wife of 46 years, Janice, at their home in Paphos, in December 2021. He was today found not guilty of her murder, but guilty of manslaughter
The apparent suicide note read: ‘My wife is in so much pain. She has asked me to help her, so we did this together.’
Judges said it proved Mr Hunter was not out to kill Janice, but wanted to end her suffering.
The contents of the notebook had not previously been revealed but proved vital as Mrs Hunter left no note and only told her husband she was suicidal.
Explaining how important the murder acquittal is, Ms Cawthorne said: ‘What makes me so emotional is I know how much this will mean to him.
‘Just knowing that he was believed, that the judges understood what they were going through, and they believed him – that will mean the world to my dad.
‘He’s a proud, honest man who has always had a lot of integrity. Even if he didn’t walk free, it would mean so much to know he was believed.’
Asked what it would mean if her father was released next week, the daughter said: ‘It would just be like having our lives back.’
Ms Cawthrone also revealed that she felt her mother’s presence on the morning of the verdict for the first time since she died.
‘All morning, I’ve really felt like my mum’s with me. I’ve really felt my mum’s presence in a way I haven’t since she died.
‘It might just be my imagination but it’s been really strange. I just felt like the kind of calmness she always had when I was panicking about A Levels or panicking about whether I’ve eaten too many Jammie Dodgers and couldn’t fit into my wedding dress.
‘That kind of calm: ”it’s going to be all right, mam’s here, and your mam’s gonna sort it.” It was weird.
‘I just it was almost like I could feel her calm in the room, and I’m not a very superstitious person.’
Mr Hunter cannot remember the turn of events from the night due to his agitated state and the drugs overdose he took so it is unclear when he wrote the message.
The judges found there was not enough evidence to prove premeditated murder, also citing he tried to kill himself with a concoction of drugs after suffocating Janice.
Judge Michalis Droussiotis said: ‘He loved his wife of 52 years and looked after her during difficult times.
‘He did something he never before thought he would be capable of doing.
‘The immediate arrival of the police and the fact he was taken to hospital saved him.’
David Hunter, 75, raises his arms in the air after being cleared of murdering his wife Janice at Cyprus’ central court. He was found guilty of manslaughter by the court
Hunter appears visibly emotional as he is transported from Paphos District Court in Cyprus after he was found not guilty by Cypriot judges of the murder of his wife
Judge Droussiotis said premeditation must be proven as a motive for death, and it must be proved the act was studied.
It must be the result of an act ‘that was thought of and executed in cold.’
Describing the entire ordeal after the ruling and how it will affect him if he is released next week, Ms Cawthorne said: ‘For 19 months he hasn’t been able to have anything the way he wanted it.
‘Before that he didn’t have the life he wanted because he was dealing with my mum’s serious illness during lockdown.
‘He had almost two years of being a prisoner during lockdown, and then he went straight from that into prison.
‘He’s had over three years of his life that have been lived at somebody else’s kind of whim.
‘So I think it’s time to respect what he wants and let him make choices, and I think it’s really important we let him make choices.
‘I know what he will choose – to spend some time with my mum. He doesn’t just want one quick trip to the grave – I know what he’s going to be like.
‘He’s going to want a period where he’s at the grave every day, and if that’s what he needs, that’s what he needs.
‘It’s not my place to pull him away from that – I’m here, I’ll be waiting, and when he’s ready then he’s going to come [to the UK].
Earlier, it emerged that Mr Hunter had been left so ‘destitute’ he wouldn’t have been able to appeal a guilty verdict if he was convicted of murder.
The spiralling costs of his agonising 19-month trial have cost him his entire savings. It has also left him unable to afford to make phone calls to friends in prison and having to survive off the meagre rations offered up free of charge.
A prison van carrying David Hunter arrives at Paphos District Court in Cyprus on Friday
‘It just breaks my heart,’ said his Ms Cawthorne. ‘When my mum was still alive he had a home, a car and money in the bank. Now he’s got a carrier bag with his clothes – that’s all he’s got.’
Mr Hunter had faced a mandatory life sentence if found guilty of pre-meditated murder.
A crowdfunder for his defence is empty and he has run up thousands of pounds of debt fighting the case to date.
Mrs Cawthorne had said: ‘I don’t know what we are going to do. He said he wants to appeal, he said, ‘We have to, I can’t spend the rest of my life here.’
‘I honestly don’t know what we are going to do. I don’t know where we are going to get the money from. It’s going to be thousands.’
Mr Hunter had struck up a friendship with British cellmate Owen Williams, 27. But after Mr Williams was released three months ago he has been left locked up with 11 other hardened criminals who don’t speak a word of English.
His only chance to speak is by his phone, but he can now only afford to make occasional calls to his daughter.
She said: ‘He’s got nobody to speak to. He’s not been able to phone people.
‘He’s not allowed to take calls, he has to pay to make them himself. He hasn’t been able to speak to his brother for a while, or his friends Barry and Kevin. He just speaks to me.
‘It’s absolutely devastating.’
David Hunter is escorted into the court in Paphos by police officers on Friday
Mr Hunter wants to pay his last respects to his wife if he is freed.
The retired Northumberland miner was forced to treat Janice for terminal blood cancer at home with injections due to Covid restrictions as she deteriorated in front of his eyes.
In her last days she was crying out in agony 24 hours a day, unable to move from their sofa or take painkillers as she pleaded with him to kill her.
He finally relented and took her life on December 18, 2021. Mr Hunter went on to attempt suicide, taking drugs and alcohol with the aim of overdosing.
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. He has now been acquitted of murder but found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter, meaning he could walk free as soon as next week.
Mrs Cawthorne said: ‘He wants to see my mum. He wants to sit and talk to her. He needs that for his mental health.
‘I think if he was offered to be released but he could not visit her and had to go straight back he would refuse. He just wants to visit my mum.’
During his trial in Cyprus, the court heard how Mr Hunter had ended Janice’s life ‘out of love and mercy’.
‘The facts of this case concern a crime of love and mercy,’ said Ritsa Pekri, one of Hunter’s lawyers.
‘There are no other cases similar to this in Cyprus’ legal history,’ she added, stressing that no one throughout the trial was able to give a testimony that indicated any history of violence or ill-will between the Hunters.
‘No witness statements indicated he was fed up of taking care of his wife. Everyone said they loved each other,’ she told the court, according to the Cyrpus Mail.
Mr Hunter’s daughter, Lesley Cawthorne, 50, says it ‘breaks her heart’ that her father has been left ‘destitute’ from trial
In May, Hunter told the court how his teenage sweetheart was reduced to wearing nappies, was covered in skin lesions and could no longer stand from her devastating blood cancer.
The final two witnesses in the trial then took 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.
‘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.
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 reportedly told the court.
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 months, as she did not wish to speak with anyone.
David Hunter and his wife Janice on their wedding day
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 in May 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.’
Mr Hunter continued: ‘For six weeks she asked if I could help her. For six weeks I refused.’
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.
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.
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 in May, 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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