British man who killed ailing wife by suffocating her is cleared of murder by Cyprus court
- David Hunter’s decision to suffocate his 74-year-old wife Janice was a snap decision: he could no longer stand seeing her weeping in pain, court said
- Court accepted that Janice feared her condition would develop into full-blown leukaemia and had repeatedly pleaded with her husband to take her life
A Cyprus court on Friday found a British man who killed his ailing wife in their home guilty of manslaughter, saying that the prosecution didn’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that the 76-year-old man committed premeditated murder.
In a unanimous decision, the three-judge bench said that David Hunter’s decision to suffocate his 74-year-old wife Janice as she was sitting in a recliner in December 2021 was a spur-of-the-moment decision: he snapped as he could no longer stand seeing her weeping in pain.
The court accepted witness testimony that Janice feared her blood ailment would develop into full-blown leukaemia and had repeatedly pleaded with her husband to take her life because she didn’t want to share the fate of her sister who died of the disease.
Hunter attempted to take his own life by consuming a large amount of pills after doing something “he never before thought possible – closing his hands over his wife’s mouth and nose,” the court heard, but medical staff saved his life.
The court cited expert testimony that Janice Hunter suffered from myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of blood cancer which “to a large degree” – as much as 45 per cent – could turn into leukaemia, although there was no proof that she had indeed developed the disease because no definitive tests were conducted.
But the court said both husband and wife believed that Janice would develop it because of her sister’s fate.