Brit husband, 76, who killed his terminally-ill spouse to ‘liberate’ her from struggling arrives at Cyprus court docket for his sentencing with judges to determine whether or not he can stroll free TODAY

A retired British miner who killed his terminally-ill spouse to ‘liberate’ her from struggling has arrived at court docket to be sentenced right this moment.

David Hunter, 76, was beforehand charged with murdering his childhood sweetheart Janice, 74 at their house close to the coastal resort city of Paphos, Cyprus.

The pensioner instructed Pathos District Court docket how his spouse of 52 years had ‘cried and begged’ for him to finish her life as she endured agonising ache from blood cancer earlier than he suffocated her in December 2021.

And earlier this month judges cleared Hunter of homicide and as an alternative convicted him of the lesser cost of manslaughter, with Choose Michalis Droussiotis accepting he ‘cherished his spouse and took care of her’.

However regardless of already having served 19 months in custody, Hunter, who’s initially from Northumberland, should face extra time in jail.

His defence group argued throughout a listening to on Thursday that Hunter ought to be handed a suspended sentence and have used precedents from throughout the Commonwealth as a part of his case.

If judges determine to impose a suspended sentence, the pensioner will have the ability to stroll free right this moment.

Michael Polak, of Justice Overseas which represented the pensioner, beforehand stated: ‘We strongly imagine that no correct objective could be served by David spending any additional time in Nicosia jail.’

At a sentencing listening to on Thursday that was adjourned till right this moment, Hunter’s defence lawyer, Ritsa Pekri, stated his motive for killing Janice was to ‘liberate his spouse from all that she was going via as a consequence of her well being circumstances’.

The court docket heard it was Mrs Hunter’s ‘want’ to die and that her husband ‘had solely emotions of affection for her’. 

‘There was no private profit for him,’ Ms Pekri added.

She described Hunter as ‘a quiet, household man that has by no means troubled the authorities’ and stated witnesses spoke of him ‘taking care of his spouse throughout a troublesome time of her life’.

The defence group stated there have been no related circumstances in Cyprus and they also had as an alternative drawn from related circumstances in New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

‘We imagine the acceptable choice drawn from these circumstances is a suspended sentence,’ Ms Pekri stated.

State prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou argued that the Hunters’ case ‘was not one in all euthanasia’.

Michael Polak, director of Justice Overseas, which is representing Hunter, stated final week: ‘We gave prolonged written submissions which embody case regulation from throughout frequent regulation international locations equivalent to Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Australia.

‘That is essential as Cyprus has by no means sentenced a case equivalent to this earlier than.

‘Instances from these jurisdictions present {that a} suspended sentence could be given in these circumstances.

‘We can be asking the court docket to present David a suspended sentence. He has spent the equal of virtually two-and-a-half years in custody and no correct objective could be served by him spending extra time in jail.’

Hunter instructed his trial, which lasted for greater than a 12 months, that his spouse ‘cried and begged’ him to finish her life as she suffered from blood most cancers.

He broke down in tears as he stated he would ‘by no means in 1,000,000 years’ have taken Mrs Hunter’s life except she had requested him to.

He confirmed the court docket how he held his palms over his spouse’s mouth and nostril and stated he finally determined to grant her want after she turned ‘hysterical’.

The couple’s daughter Lesley Cawthorne stated the household was ‘apprehensive’ forward of the sentencing listening to.

She stated: ‘We hope for time served or a suspended sentence however are very conscious that there is a probability he’ll stay in custody. We’re not counting our chickens.’

Ms Cawthorne stated her father had been ‘quietly relieved’ since final week’s verdict, however was ‘not particularly’ hopeful about his sentence.

She added: ‘He would not wish to permit himself to get his hopes up.

‘He is grateful that the judges appear to have understood what they went via and imagine that he acted out of affection.’

Earlier this month, Hunter was discovered not responsible of pre-meditated murder for ending the struggling of his childhood sweetheart.

An obvious suicide word written by Hunter proved essential within the British pensioner being dramatically cleared of homicide.

A blue pocket book and pen had been present in his home with a message in it seemingly left for individuals who would discover Mr Hunter and his wife’s bodies.

The obvious suicide word learn: ‘My spouse is in a lot ache. She has requested me to assist her, so we did this collectively.’ 

After the decision was learn out Mr Hunter welled up in tears and instructed associates ‘I am completely satisfied – elated’. He was pictured visibly emotional and he raised his palms within the air as he was led out of the court docket. 

Hunter can not bear in mind the flip of occasions from the night time as a consequence of his agitated state and the medication overdose he took so it’s unclear when he wrote the message.

The judges discovered there was not sufficient proof to show premeditated homicide, additionally citing he tried to kill himself with a concoction of medicine after suffocating Janice.

Choose Michalis Droussiotis stated following the decision: ‘He cherished his spouse of 52 years and sorted her throughout troublesome instances.

‘He did one thing he by no means earlier than thought he could be able to doing.

‘The speedy arrival of the police and the actual fact he was taken to hospital saved him.’

The retired Northumberland miner was compelled to deal with Janice for terminal blood most cancers at house with injections as a consequence of Covid restrictions as she deteriorated in entrance of his eyes.

In her final days she was crying out in agony 24 hours a day, unable to maneuver from their couch or take painkillers as she pleaded with him to kill her.

He lastly relented and took her life on December 18, 2021. Mr Hunter went on to try suicide, taking medication and alcohol with the goal of overdosing.

However medics managed to revive him earlier than he was arrested on suspicion of pre-meditated homicide – and he has since languished in a high-security jail in Nicosia. He has now been acquitted of homicide however discovered responsible of the lesser cost of manslaughter, which means he might stroll free as quickly as right this moment.

In Could, Hunter instructed the court docket how his teenage sweetheart was lowered to carrying nappies, was coated in pores and skin lesions and will not stand from her devastating blood cancer.

The ultimate two witnesses within the trial then took the stand, telling the court docket how Janice’s situation deteriorated within the final years of her life and the way she turned more and more depressed.

Via all of it, they stated, Mr Hunter remained a loving husband.

‘Janice usually instructed us that her nice want was to not be taken to the hospital. And I believe David made this attainable,’ Helmut Kesting, a neighbour of the British couple, instructed the court docket. 

In line with the Cyprus Mail, Kesting has lived along with his spouse within the island nation since 2020. He described Mr Hunter as a ‘quiet, dependable and cheap man’.

‘He and Janice all the time had been very useful and pleasant to us,’ he stated.

Kesting described to the court docket how David and Janice had been very loving with one-another, saying they had been very pleased with the connection they shared.

‘They invited us to their house and confirmed us a variety of footage, picture albums of their previous journeys. I by no means heard shouting or fights. I imagine they had been in full concord collectively,’ Kesting reportedly instructed the court docket.

Nevertheless, he stated it was noticeable by 2021 – within the midst of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic – that Janice had change into ‘an increasing number of depressed’ having been ‘optimistic’ about her situation a 12 months earlier.

He stated that he and his spouse had no contact with Janice in her remaining three or 4 months, as she didn’t want to converse with anybody.

Mr Hunter – a retired miner – stated he was compelled to deal with his spouse himself at house as a consequence of Covid restrictions as her health deteriorated.

He instructed the court docket in Could his spouse was left crying out in agony 24 hours a day.

He broke down in tears as he instructed the court docket how he killed his spouse after she ‘begged’ him for six weeks.

He stated: ‘I do not bear in mind a variety of the final day. I went to make a cup of espresso and he or she began crying.’

He described how he went to the kettle and gripped the bench for help as his spouse sat sobbing subsequent door.

‘The following factor I knew I put my palms on her,’ he stated, wiping tears from his eyes. ‘When it was completed, she was a gray color. She did not seem like my spouse, and it was the primary time I cried in a few years.’

He described how he stood by her aspect and put his left hand on her nostril and proper hand over her mouth to smother her.

When prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou instructed that Mrs Hunter struggled and scratched him as he smothered her, Mr Hunter instructed him: ‘She by no means struggled, she by no means moved. You’re speaking nonsense.’

Mr Hadjikyrou then instructed Mr Hunter had deliberate to kill his spouse and didn’t inform her, to which he replied: ‘I might by no means in 1,000,000 years take my spouse’s life if she had not requested me.

‘She wasn’t simply my spouse, she was my finest buddy.’ He added: ‘She wasn’t loopy, you have not seen the pressure of the final six years, what she’s gone via.

‘The state of affairs, the stress. I would not like anybody to undergo the final six months we each went via.’

The prosecutor responded: ‘Mr Hunter, there are those who undergo a lot worse ache.’

Mr Hunter stated he did not inform the medical doctors of his spouse’s suicidal needs as a result of she requested him to not, fearing they’d take her into hospital. He did not inform their daughter as a result of he did not wish to ‘fear’ her.

After the cross examination completed, Mr Hunter requested to handle the decide. He instructed him: ‘My spouse was struggling and he or she really stated, ‘I do not wish to dwell anymore’, and I nonetheless stated no.

‘Then she began to change into hysterical. I hoped she would change her thoughts. I cherished her a lot. I didn’t plan it, I swear to God.’

Mr Hunter continued: ‘For six weeks she requested if I might assist her. For six weeks I refused.’

Describing her agony, he instructed Paphos District Court docket: ‘She was mendacity down, she was in ache, struggling. I might do something to assist her. The very last thing on my thoughts was to take her life. The very last thing.’

Requested how the previous couple of days had been, Mr Hunter stated: ‘She was crying, crying, crying, begging, begging, begging.

‘She wasn’t taking any care of herself. The final two or three weeks she couldn’t transfer her arms and had bother together with her legs, she could not steadiness.

‘She was solely consuming soup, she could not maintain something down. She misplaced a variety of weight. She misplaced a lot weight that there was no flesh to place her injections in.’

He stated in these remaining days he was ‘serious about what to do 24/7’ earlier than lastly taking the choice to undergo with it when she as soon as extra began crying out in ache.

Mr Hunter stated: ‘I do not forget that I had my hand on her mouth and nostril. I do not even know the way I considered it. I do not know the way lengthy I saved my palms there for.

‘She didn’t try and cease me… I do not even suppose she opened her eyes.’

After she died, he kissed her brow and instructed her he cherished her, earlier than confessing to his brother who alerted the police. He stated he can not bear in mind being arrested or giving interviews to police.

Earlier he instructed how he met his spouse when she requested him for a dance at a miners’ corridor celebration in Northumberland.

‘She got here as much as me and stated, ‘You are sitting in my seat.’ I hadn’t ever seen such a wonderful girl,’ he stated.

From there, they had been all the time collectively, he stated, they usually married in St John’s Church in Ashington in 1969.

Requested how their marriage was, he stated: ‘Excellent.’ He instructed how he labored seven days per week within the mine to pay for his or her solely little one, Leslie, to change into the primary member of the household to go to college.

He and his spouse would go to Cyprus on holidays and purchased a property there in 1999 earlier than transferring throughout two years later to retire there.

Mr Hunter stated: ‘The primary 16 years earlier than she bought sick, other than a number of operations, it was completely unbelievable.’

However Mr Hunter suffered a stroke in 2015 and it was on common journeys to the hospital for his remedy that a health care provider seen his spouse was wanting very pale.

She was recognized with blood most cancers and needed to go to the capital Nicosia each week for procedures and injections.

As her situation deteriorated she requested to go to Paphos Basic Hospital as a result of she could not face the journeys, however when Covid hit it was closed and they also saved her injections of their fridge and self-medicated.

Mr Hunter instructed how he known as the hospital 5 instances a day however there was no reply, and he was compelled to journey to centres additional away for assist and provides.

She had two 125 euro injections per week however began struggling unwanted effects together with diarrhoea, complications, dizziness and nostril bleeds.

Mrs Hunter’s haemoglobin ranges had been such that she was unable to take painkillers and was left in agony at house, unable to maneuver.

In her final months she underwent a sequence of operations for pores and skin lesions on her face and palms, in addition to a knee operation and one other for her collarbone.

Talking after his listening to in Could, Mr Hunter instructed the press he was completely satisfied to lastly give his account after ready for 18 months.

‘I bought my say, that is what I wished,’ he stated. ‘To inform them issues that they by no means even considered.

‘For six weeks when she was asking me, it was 24 hours. She was my spouse, my finest buddy.

‘The final six months, I would not like anybody to undergo that. Jail is nothing in comparison with what we went although.’