Norwich woman shock at father’s Cyprus murder trial ruling

David Hunter, 75, is accused by prosecutors in Cyprus of the premeditated murder of his wife Janice, 74, who died of asphyxiation at their retirement home near the coastal resort town of Paphos in December 2021.

David Hunter, from Northumberland, is led back to a police van after appearing at Paphos District Court in Cyprus (Image: PA)

On Tuesday a Cypriot court found he had been lucid at the time and aware of what was happening and that a police confession had been obtained lawfully and can be used in evidence.

The couple’s daughter Lesley, 50, who lives in Norwich, has hit out at the verdict citing a heart-breaking video call she made to her father moments after the alleged killing.

She said: “I am devastated and struggling to understand how someone can be judged to be “lucid” when they didn’t even recognise their daughter of 50 years.

“My dad had taken every pill in the house and downed alcohol. I am baffled at how they could reach such a decision, it doesn’t make sense.”

Lesley with her parents David and Janice Hunter (Image: Family handout)

The video, which shows Mr Hunter unresponsive as his daughter begged him not to kill himself, was played in court by Mr Hunter's defence team to demonstrate how he was “in a state of shock and doesn't understand what is going on” and should never have been made to sign police statements.

An agreement between prosecution and defence to reduce the murder charge to manslaughter collapsed late last year after prosecutors refused to accept Hunter’s claim that his wife, who was terminally ill with blood cancer, asked him to end her life.

Michael Polak, of Justice Abroad, the group representing Mr Hunter, has said it will apply to the Supreme Court of Cyprus for a judicial review of the decision.