Nothing in David Hunter’s life is right. Six weeks before his 75th birthday, the pensioner remains in Cyprus, but his home is a prison cell shared with 11 other men. At the other end of the Mediterranean island, Janice, his beloved wife, lies buried in a cemetery overlooking the sea. He failed to visit. Worse, almost four months before her death, he was charged with premeditated murder with the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars.
“My father loved my mother for 56 years,” said Leslie Cotorne, the couple’s daughter, from her home in Norwich. “He really loved her. From beginning to end, when she was so sick and in such pain, he treated her with kindness, love, and compassion. All we want is to bring him home. “
The battle for this is in full swing on Monday, when Hunter, a former Northumberland miner, will be expelled from Nicosia’s central prison in Paphos, the southern resort town where he and his wife first sought their “dream life” abroad.
There, before a court-martial, he will relive the events of the night of December 18, events which, according to his lawyers, constitute “assisted suicide” but which in a nation heavily influenced by the Greek Orthodox Church have caused concern, even if they have helped. to lift the veil on a topic that has long been considered taboo: euthanasia.
For months, Kothorn said, her father resisted her cancer mother’s pleas to end what had become excruciating physical pain.
Janice Hunter was diagnosed with leukemia in 2016 and her health deteriorated after the pandemic broke out. Difficulties in accessing treatment, combined with persistent diarrhea and gradual loss of vision, made life unbearable.
Fearing the same fate as her sister Kathleen, who suffered an agonizing and unworthy death from the same disease, Janice begged her suffering to end, said Cotorne, a financial industry compliance consultant.
A week before Christmas, while his wife was sitting in her favorite chair in a room full of decorations, Hunter acted: he took his wife’s head in his hands and, according to police, blocked her airways until the act was committed. The seven-year-old then tried to take his own life by overdoing the prescribed pills and alcohol. When authorities arrived – warned by Hunter’s brother – they found the former miner barely alive in their Tremithousa penthouse in the hills above Paphos. Janice was dead in her white leather chair.
For days, doctors pumped Hunter’s stomach against his will until the Briton regained consciousness. When he appeared, he realized that a momentary decision, prompted by an alleged act of love, changed his life forever.
But Derek Wickett, the couple’s neighbor, is sure of one thing. “They thought of each other’s worlds,” said the gentle midlander, who is also retiring in Cyprus after 40 years at the Fort Dunlop tire factory in Birmingham. “You will hear Janice singing; she loved her vegetable garden, “he told the Observer, throwing his head over the wall between the penthouses. “Suddenly there was no singing then. She was in so much pain that she couldn’t get out. It was awful how it ended. We just hope they can bring David home.
Hunter’s lawyers have called on the Attorney General, a senior legal official in the former British colony, to intervene in the first case of its kind in Cyprus. Amid opposition from the Orthodox Church and a debate in parliament over the legalization of euthanasia, the defense team demanded that the charge be reduced to assisted suicide in accordance with legislation elsewhere in Europe. The request was rejected on Friday.
“We have made lengthy statements … drawing on law and guidance from other jurisdictions explaining why criminal prosecution for murder is inappropriate in the circumstances of this case,” said Michael Pollack, a lawyer with the London-based legal aid group Justice Abroad. “These allegations were rejected, but the letter did not give reasons for this reason for action.”
Lawyers said they would continue to ask the prosecutor’s office to make a “decision in principle” so that David Hunter could return to the United Kingdom.
At Ollie’s, a family pub near a dead-end street with palm trees where Hunters once lived, expats are reluctant to talk about an affair that has apparently thrown ashes on the community. But true love and respect for the Hunters were not enough.
“They were very good people,” said Petros Christofi, who chairs the 1,300-member Tremitusa community and rented the couple’s penthouse after selling their Paphos apartment to pay for Janice’s health care. “Ask Father Michael in the church, ask everyone here. Everyone liked them. “
With a heavy heart, Christofi said, he testified before police on the night she died. “It simply came to our notice then. It is clear that she was in pain. It is clear that this was not a murder, and it is clear that our laws need to change.
A wooden cross marks the spot on the hill where Janice is buried. A jug full of flowers and bouquets lie in the freshest grave in the cemetery, full of foreign names.
“Dad is obsessed with the idea of visiting his mother’s grave,” said Kotorn, 49, who said her own heart disease had prevented her from traveling to Cyprus.
“He thinks it is indecent and disrespectful that he failed to go. It was impossible to grieve for Mom. All we want is compassion. We need Dad at home so we can grieve together.
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