A 76-year-old British man living abroad in Cyprus is being prosecuted for the murder of his wife, who was terminally ill with cancer and “begged” him to end her life. David and Janice Hunter had been married for more than 50 years, but the terrible pain Janice experienced on a daily basis made being alive simply unbearable. Now, he’s having to defend his decision to fatally smother her in court.
Hunter appeared before a three-member tribunal in Paphos on Monday, telling them that he was devastated watching his beloved wife suffer badly before her death. He said he hoped there would be some sort of good news that would change things, but that it wasn’t until he finally gave into her pleading that she finally found peace, The Guardian reports.
“For six weeks, every day, she begged me,” he said. “I would never have helped her end her life if she hadn’t begged me. I didn’t want to. I had lived with her for 57 years. She wasn’t just my wife. She was my best friend.”
David Hunter is now charged with premeditated murder. Cyprus takes a harsh stance against euthanasia due to the country’s Orthodox church. He’s spent the past 18 months sharing a cell with 12 other men at a prison in Nicosia.
Hunter revealed that Janice had been dealing with the horrific side effects of injections for her terminal leukemia, which kept her not only confined to their apartment in Tremithousa but meant she was forced to wear diapers due to constant diarrhea. She’d undergone several surgeries on her face, knees, collarbone, and foot and had become too weak to move or walk in the weeks before her death.
“She was sick of all the treatment, she was sick of life … she was full of pain,” Hunter told the court through sobs. “I don’t remember a lot of the last day. I went to make a cup of coffee and she started crying. The next thing I knew I put my hands on her … when it was finished, she was a grey color. She didn’t look like my wife, and it was the first time I cried in many years.”
David Hunter has never denied killing his wife, and he tried to end his own life not long after, but he has always denied the charge of premeditated murder. David’s brother William turned him in to police after David told him what happened, and David himself told police that he “killed Janice to save her.” However, given that there’s no physical evidence of Janice’s pleas, authorities believe Hunter may have simply planned to kill her to avoid caring for her further.
The trial is continuing, with final arguments and a verdict due next week.
