I felt trapped, says canoeist wife

3:39pm Friday 18th July 2008

The wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin was making a "last-ditch" attempt to escape justice for her part in a £250,000 scam, a court has heard.

Anne Darwin repeatedly lied and changed her story to say her 57-year-old husband was by her side whenever fraudulent insurance claims were made, the jury was told. She claimed she was "trapped" by her former prison officer husband's plan which would see them out of debt and bring them a new life in Panama.

In cross-examination, Andrew Robertson QC, said: "It is now to your advantage to lie about him being present because it gives you your last-ditch hope of getting away with all this. That's what it comes to, doesn't it?" "No," she replied.

He countered: "That's what this trial is all about, you pushing everything to the wire. When that is proved to be a lie, change tack. When that is proved to be a lie, change tack again.

"This is the last wire, Mrs Darwin, and you are prepared to fight this case because this is your last hope of getting away with it, isn't it? It is nothing to do with the truth."

The former doctor's receptionist shook her head in response. She is employing the unusual defence of marital coercion, which means she claims her husband forced her to act against her will, and was present when each offence was committed.

She broke down in tears when she explained her husband made her lie to their sons Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, that he had died at sea in a canoeing accident outside the couple's seafront home in Seaton Carew, Teesside, in 2002.

Mr Robertson said she must have been motivated by making cash. Mrs Darwin, 56, wept: "I didn't want the money. Money was not important to me."

Mr Robertson asked Mrs Darwin: "Why didn't you, their mother, take them to one side and say, 'I cannot bear seeing you like this, the truth is that he is not dead. We are in dire financial circumstances and he's had this mad idea to try to claim some money from the insurance companies?' Why didn't you bring their pain to an end?"

Mrs Darwin replied: "Because I felt trapped." She denies six counts of deception and nine counts of money laundering. The trial continues.

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