21 March 2023 , 20:49
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The daughter of a man accused of murdering his terminally-ill wife described the family’s “nightmare”.
A court in Cyprus yesterday ruled a confession was obtained lawfully and can be used in evidence against David Hunter, 75, who is on trial for the premeditated murder of his wife-of-52-years Janice.
His lawyer said David knew he was in “no fit state to be interviewed” at the time of the incident in December 2021, when he also tried to take his own life.
The defence team had previously shown videos in court of the horrifying moment David’s daughter Lesley spoke to her father on a video call in the immediate aftermath of her mother’s death.
David Hunter is accused of murdering his terminally-ill wife (Daily Mirror)The pensioner’s defence team had argued his confession should be inadmissible as evidence in the trial, claiming he was not provided with his right to a lawyer or to remain silent before statements were taken from him when he was arrested on suspicion of killing Janice, 75, who had terminal blood cancer.
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They had previously called a forensic psychiatrist to give evidence, who said that David was suffering from dissociation at the time, and that statements made to medical professionals should be inadmissible against him.
He had also received no psychiatric assessment before interviews took place.
The court found that David was lucid and aware of what was happening, shown by the fact that he took pills and called his brother after killing Janice. His legal team say they will appeal at the country’s Supreme Court in capital Nicosia.
David, Janice and Lesley in happier times (Justice Abroad)Lesley Cawthorne, 49, David’s daughter told the Mirror: “How could anybody see that video and say a man – who did not recognise his own daughter – was lucid? It’s like a never-ending nightmare and I don’t know if I’m ever going to wake up.”
Lawyer Michael Polak, from the Justice Abroad organisation, said outside Paphos Assize Court: “There’s no way in the UK they’d have interviewed him straight away without an assessment, even from the point of protecting themselves.”
Janice died of asphyxiation at their home near Paphos, before the ex-miner tried to take his own life.
After the ruling the trial continued.
Dr Nektarios Sidiropoulos, an ER doctor who first attended to David, told the court David had told him: “She suffered from leukaemia, she begged me to help her, to relieve her from her pain.”
The trial continues and is due to sit next on Tuesday, March 28.