Anne Darwin was living in Panama when her husband reappeared Back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin cried and begged his wife to let him come home after faking his own death, Teesside Crown Court has heard. But Anne Darwin, 56, told detectives probing her role in a £250,000 fraud she was minded to leave him in hiding. The court heard it later emerged she sent him an e-mail from Panama asking him not to leave her, just hours before he handed himself in to UK police. Mrs Darwin denies deception and money-laundering charges. Mr Darwin has admitted deception and will be sentenced later. He vanished after his canoe was found in the sea close to his home at Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, in 2002. I knew it was stupid but, once I set out along the road, it was difficult to turn back

Anne Darwin The jury was read transcripts of interviews between Mrs Darwin and police which were taken after Mr Darwin's reappearance and the couple's subsequent arrest last year. She told officers that her husband had pleaded to come home from his Lake District hiding place within weeks of his disappearance and how finally she relented. The transcript read: "I still had family staying with me. He was finding it hard. He was getting desperate. "He phoned me and gave me directions to where he was. "I wanted to leave him there. I didn't want to go and pick him up, but I couldn't leave him. "At one point, he was literally crying on the telephone. "I couldn't see him hurt." The court was told how his faked death allowed Mrs Darwin to clear their mounting debts by making insurance and pension claims worth £250,000, and she emigrated to Panama last year to start a new life with him. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement But he flew back to Britain and walked into a central London police station in November, claiming he had amnesia. Mrs Darwin admits the deceptions took place, but is putting forward the defence of marital coercion, meaning she was forced to break the law against her will. While he was in the air, Mrs Darwin, 56, wrote in am e-mail: "Hope you had a good flight and everything okay with the family. Don't leave me. Love you, missing you already XXXXXX." The jury heard that after returning, Mr Darwin lived next door in a bedsit in the property adjoining the seafront family home. Mrs Darwin told police that she had protested to her husband that they should declare themselves bankrupt. "But he just wouldn't hear it. He said we had both worked hard all our lives and he didn't want to lose everything he had worked for," the transcript read. Mark (right) and Anthony Darwin were at Teesside Crown Court on Tuesday "He was not violent, but could be very manipulative. "I used to say he treated me like a second year pupil that he used to teach. "From the day he came home, I tried to persuade him to come clean. "I knew it was stupid but, once I set out along the road, it was difficult to turn back." The former doctors' receptionist told officers that deceiving their two sons Mark and Anthony Darwin had been "extremely painful". She had allowed her husband to hear phone calls with their sons by putting them on loudspeaker, the court heard. The jury was told that Mr Darwin eventually set up a new life in Panama and that e-mails had been exchanged between the couple before his wife moved to the Central American country. 'Kind of numbness' Police accessed Mr Darwin's Yahoo account, set up the name of John Jones - the identity he assumed after faking his death - and were able to read 89 messages. One urged his wife to join him in Panama "fast", while his wife sent a message inquiring about a book he was writing. Irene Blakemore, the best friend of Mrs Darwin, told the court that she felt betrayed by the lies spun to her. Telling of a visit to her friend's home after the disappearance, she said: "(Anne) appeared quite calm but I wasn't surprised that she was not weeping and wailing because she came across as a quite self-contained person and not one to make a fuss. "There was a kind of numbness." Mrs Blakemore also said Mrs Darwin had marked the first anniversary of her husband's "death" by taking flowers to the sea where the battered canoe had been found, one of which she kept for her bedside table. She added that Mrs Darwin had appeared "shaky" after the inquest into Mr Darwin's death in April 2003. Mrs Darwin denies six counts of deception and nine money-laundering charges linked to insurance payments. The trial continues.



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