David and Janice Hunter retired to Cyprus 20 years ago, living near the resort of Paphos
A British ex-pat who has walked free from court after being sentenced for killing his seriously ill wife in Cyprus said he could not find words to describe the feeling of being released.
David Hunter was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife Janice, 74, in an assisted suicide at their Paphos home in 2021 and jailed for two years.
The 76-year-old, originally from Ashington, Northumberland, was freed after spending 19 months in custody.
Outside court Hunter thanked his mates.
He had told the trial his wife “cried and begged” him to end her life as she suffered from blood cancer.
On the steps of Paphos District Court, he told the BBC: “I’d like to say thank you to all the people who’ve donated to me, and especially my mates and my workmates.
“I don’t know where I would be without them.”
“When you work in a colliery, you’re a family.”
Asked how he was feeling, he said: “I can’t describe it. I’m sorry. I wish I could, I wish I could find words to describe it, but I can’t.
“When you’re under pressure for two years, not knowing which way it’s going to go.”
Janice and David on their wedding day
The Hunters were married for more than 50 years
His legal team had argued he should be given a suspended sentence, in a case which was a legal first in the country.
They had initially suggested he would be out by 18 August after spending 19 months in custody, but prison authorities freed him on Monday after they officially calculated his release date.
In mitigation last week, his defence lawyer Ritsa Pekri said his motive was to “liberate his wife from all that she was going through due to her health conditions”.
The court heard it was Mrs Hunter’s “wish” to die and that her husband “had only feelings of love for her”.
David Hunter has his arms stretched as if waving
Hunter said he would “never in a million years” have suffocated his wife of 52 years unless she had asked him to.
He showed the court how he held his hands over Mrs Hunter’s mouth and nose and said he eventually decided to grant her her wish after she became “hysterical”.
The court heard he then tried to kill himself by taking an overdose, but paramedics arrived in time to save him.
A plea deal, which would have seen Hunter admit manslaughter, was agreed with prosecutors in November but the murder trial went ahead after a U-turn by Cypriot authorities.
Mrs Hunter was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2021 – a development that left her “in absolute agony”, the couple’s daughter Lesley Cawthorne said.
BBC