British woman begged her father not to kill himself after suffocating mother, Cyprus court hears
19 January 2023, 05:36 | Updated: 19 January 2023, 05:49
A daughter begged her father not to kill himself moments after he had ended the life of her terminally ill mother, a court has heard.
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Lesley Hunter could be seen telling David Hunter, 75, "you can't leave me" 2,500 miles away from the British pensioner's retirement villa in Cyprus.
“Daddy, daddy, just concentrate on me. Just concentrate on me,” she was heard saying in a call filmed by a family member at her home in Norwich.
“Forget about everybody else, just concentrate on me. Daddy you love me. Not anybody else, just me and you. I love you. I’m your girl, I will always love you.
"I’m your girl daddy. I’m your little girl, concentrate on me. You cannot leave… Daddy don’t leave me."
Mr Hunter is accused of murdering his wife, Janice - using his bare hands to block her air passages – on the night of 18 December 2021 in their home outside Paphos. She had been suffering from terminal leukaemia.
He says he did so only after Janice allegedly asked him weeks earlier to end her life.
After suffocating her, the pensioner made one last call to his brother William back in the UK, informing him of what had happened.
He then said he was going to take his own life with a drugs and alcohol overdose.
William rang the police who subsequently rushed to his daughter in the UK, insisting she filmed any conversation with her father to use as evidence.
The video was shown at the request of the defence as proof of Mr Hunter’s psychological state on the night of the murder. He could be seen staring back blankly at the screen.
Mr Hunter appeared emotional as the footage was played out on the day.
Giving testimony for the first time since the trial began nearly a year ago, he said he could not remember the events immediately before, or after, Janice died.
"I was fuzzy and it looked like I was looking down on myself," he said.
During cross examination, the prosecutor argued Janice had put up resistance, saying there were scratches on her face.
Mr Hunter said that was impossible as his wife was so weak she was barely able to move her limbs and he "had no scratches on my hands".
It had appeared that a plea bargain would be reached last month, with the British father expected to have been released after admitting a lesser charge of manslaughter.
But the prosecution instead pushed ahead with pre-meditated murder.
Speaking outside court, Mr Hunter said: "I never would have killed her in a million years. She didn't ask me, she begged me. The last five weeks she was begging me.
"She didn't resist. Because of the cancer she couldn't even lift her hands."
The trial continues.
