Daughter begs father to stay alive moments after he kills terminally ill wife

18 January 2023 , 15:57

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A desperate daughter begged her father over a video call to stay alive just moments after he killed his terminally ill wife.

Harrowing video footage was today shown in Paphos assize court in Cyprus of the minutes after David Hunter suffocated his wife Janice in their home.

Their daughter Lesley Cawthorne, 49, is seen calling her dad and telling him: “You cannot leave me.”

An emotional David, a former miner from Ashington in Northumberland, watched in court as the video showed Lesley screaming for him to survive.

“Daddy, just concentrate on me,” she begged.

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“Forget about everybody else and concentrate on me.

David Hunter testified for the first time in his murder trial today (Humphrey Nemar/ dailty mirror)

“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.”

David and Janice Hunter together in Cyprus in 2015 (Albanpix.com)

A police officer with Lesley can be heard asking if David had taken something, but David did not respond.

Mr Hunter is accused of the pre-meditated murder of his wife Janice, 74, who had been suffering from terminal leukaemia at their retirement home in Cyprus.

After suffocating her, he called his brother, William, in the UK to confess to killing his wife – before saying he was going to take his own life with a drugs and alcohol overdose.

William alerted the police who dashed to Lesley’s Norfolk home and advised her to video call her father for evidence on December 18, 2021.

The couple were married for 52 years (PA)

Harrowing video footage was shown of the minutes after David Hunter suffocated his wife Janice

It is not clear from the footage whether Mr Hunter had already taken the concoction or was just in shock.

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David says he suffocated his wife of 52 years because she no longer wanted to live due to the agony caused by her leukaemia.

David’s lawyer Michael Polak, from Justice Abroad, said afterwards: “The reason we played the video in court is because it shows David is in a state of shock and doesn’t understand what’s going on around him.

“We say that when the statements were taken from him by police he was in no state to be interviewed.

Hunter leaving the court in Cyprus (Daily Mirror)

David Hunter's daughter Lesley Cawthorne begged him to stay alive (Albanpix.com)

“It’s remarkable that the police interviewed him without any psychiatric assessment of him.

“There’s no way that if this case had been in the UK he would have been interviewed in those circumstances because police would have got a psychiatric assessment to make sure he’s OK and to make sure the evidence is reliable.

“This, along with the fact he didn’t have a lawyer or interpretation, mean that those statements should be excluded from the case.”

During today’s pre-trial hearing David, 75, spoke in court for the first time since he was remanded in custody more than a year ago.

Police vans transport David Hunter at the district court in Paphos this afternoon (Humphrey Nemar/ daily mirror)

And he broke down in tears when the prosecution, under cross examination, showed him a picture of his wife’s lifeless body in their home - which he had not seen before.

He refuted claims Janice had struggled when he suffocated her, after prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou read a statement from David where he said she had.

The statement read: “I went back from the sofa she was sitting on and closed her nose and mouth with both my hands for about 10-15 minutes until Janice died.

“I was trying to save her by killing her. Janice was resisting and was holding my hands.”

Hunter claims he killed his wife at her request (bbc.co.uk)

The statement was taken down by a Cypriot detective in the immediate aftermath of Janice’s death.

David today insisted: “My wife was just lying there.

“Later on I was told she struggled but I know I would never hurt my wife.

“My hands had no scratches on them.”

Speaking outside court afterwards, David said: “I never would have killed her in a million years.

“She didn’t ask me, she begged me. The last five weeks she was begging me.

“She didn’t resist. Because of the cancer she couldn’t even lift her hands.”

Janice's grave with flowers on her birthday in March last year (Albanpix.com)

David’s lawyer Michael Polak arriving at court (Daily Mirror)

Prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou said David had told police officers on the evening of Janice’s death what he had done.

He said: “You told (an officer) ‘my wife has leukaemia and she had too much pain and she asked me to help her not to suffer any more.

“‘Afterwards I killed her with my hands.’.”

Mr Hadjikyrou also said David had told a nurse he “couldn’t stand to see (Janice) suffer” and that he told police when in hospital: “I killed her to save her.”

David said he could not remember saying any of those things.

Hunter with his wife Janice and daughter Lesley in the 1980s

Mr Hadjikyrou said David made a confession whereby the Brit said Janice had told him: “Dave, I do not want to live anymore.”

In the same statement, taken in the immediate aftermath, Mr Hadjikyrou said David revealed: “As soon as killed her I kissed her goodbye.

“I know what I did to Janice was wrong but now Janice does not suffer and she can rest in peace.”

David said he cannot remember making any of these statements.

David told the court that when police came to his home in the village of Tremithousa, where he and Janice had retired to, he recalls everything looking “like a dream” after taking “all the drugs in his house”.