A case has started where the prosecution is appealing the decision and punishment given to a man who was released from jail for murdering his very sick wife.
David Hunter, who is 76 years old, was blamed for killing his wife Janice at their house in Cyprus in 2021. However, he was found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder, and as a result, he was let out of prison.
Mr Hunter, who lives in Ashington, Northumberland, might be accused of planning to commit murder again.
The appeal hearing might be held in April or May.
Mr Hunter, from Ashington, Northumberland, said during his trial that he smothered his 74-year-old wife because she pleaded with him to do so. She was experiencing a unique type of blood cancer.
Three judges agreed with the defense’s argument that he had acted on an impulse because he loved his wife.
He was in jail for 19 months before being convicted of manslaughter, but he was not found guilty of premeditated murder.
The prosecution went to the Court of Appeal in Nicosia on Tuesday to challenge Mr. Hunter’s not guilty verdict for murder and his punishment for manslaughter.
Michael Polak, who is the director of Justice Abroad and representing Mr. Hunter, stated that the court has instructed the prosecution to submit their arguments within two months. The defense will then have two months to respond to these arguments.
Mr Polak said that after being in prison for over 19 months and going through a trial, David Hunter was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. This led to his release from custody. At that moment, they believed that the legal process was finished for him.
“He said it can be really stressful for anyone, especially someone like David, to constantly worry about going back to prison for the rest of their life. ”
Mr Polak said that he was not happy with the decision to continue pursuing David, but his team would keep supporting him and keep fighting for him.
Tag: David Hunter
-
David Hunter: Appeal against manslaughter ruling in Cyprus commences
-
Elderly man who killed his terminally sick wife exonerated of murder
Following the passing of his terminally sick wife, David Hunter was found guilty of manslaughter despite being exonerated of murder.
In December 2021, Janice Hunter asphyxiated to death in the couple’s home in Cyprus’s Paphos region.
According to testimony given in court previously, Hunter, a former British miner, killed his terminally sick wife after she ‘cried and begged’ him to do it.
After being exonerated of her murder, the 76-year-old may now be allowed to leave prison.
Cypriot judges accepted that Hunter had a ‘loving’ and ‘dream’ relationship with his wife Janice, director of Justice Abroad Michael Polak said.
He told reporters: ‘The court accepted evidence that … on that morning she asked him to end her life.’
Hunter was said to be ‘speechless’ and ‘too tired to smile’ following the news.
Mr Polak continued: ‘I had a quick chat with David inside the courtroom where he was really speechless and we went down to the cells here at the court and spoke to him.
‘He said he hadn’t slept for three or four days, was very tired and said he is too tired to smile, but he is very pleased about what happened.
‘He would like to thank everyone who supported him in this case. This is the result he was looking for.’
Hunter will be sentenced on July 27.
In May, he broke down in tears as he told his trial that he would ‘never in a million years’ have taken Janice’s life unless she had asked him to.
He added: ‘She wasn’t just my wife, she was my best friend.’
He showed the court how he held his hands over his wife’s mouth and nose and said he eventually decided to grant his wife’s wish after she became ‘hysterical’.
Hunter, from Ashington in Northumberland, said: ‘For five or six weeks before she died she was asking me to help her. She was asking me more every day.
‘In the last week she was crying and begging me. Every day she asked me a bit more intensely to do it.’
Before he finished giving evidence, he asked to address the judge, who he told: ‘My wife was suffering and she actually said: “I don’t want to live any more,” 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.’
After giving evidence he told reporters his time in a Cypriot prison was ‘nothing’ compared to the last six months of Janice’s life.
Hunter told the court he tried to kill himself after his wife’s death.
At trial, the prosecution said he ‘had decided to kill her and there was no common consent’.
During closing speeches in June, his defence team said it was not a case of premeditated murder and Hunter ‘acted spontaneously’ to end his wife’s life ‘upon her begging him to do so’.
They have also argued a confession he is said to have made when he was arrested should not have been used against him, claiming he was suffering from dissociation at the time.
A judge found Hunter was lucid and dismissed the application.
On Wednesday, the couple’s daughter Lesley Cawthorne said his her father is ‘anxious, tired and lonely’ and the past ’19 months has taken a huge toll on him’.
She added: ‘I think the hope has been crushed out of him.
‘He would probably tell other people he’s keeping his chin up but I see how much he’s struggling.’
A panel of three judges handed down the verdict following a lengthy trial.