Wife testifies in faked-death scam
Swamped by money problems and facing ruin, John Darwin cooked up a novel scheme early in 2002. He would fake his own death, collect 226,000 pounds (U.S. $452,000) on his life insurance and pension plans, escape his debts, and the family would prosper anew. Eureka!
Soon enough, John Darwin "died" in a staged canoe accident in the North Sea, then called his wife to pick him up and drop him at a train station where he began Part Two of his troubled life. They eventually made it to Panama, where they tried to start over in a lush tropical clime.
But that only works in Hollywood. In searing testimony last week at her criminal trial at Teesside Crown Court in northern England, Anne Darwin, 56, says she wishes now that her husband had really died. It's no wonder she is bitter — her family is in tatters, and she may face a prison term when her criminal trial on 15 counts of deception and money laundering ends early next week.
Why did she go along with the half-baked, get-rich-quick scheme?
"I felt trapped," she said Friday after describing her husband — who has pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges — as a domineering, philandering and manipulative man who was determined to get what he wanted. She said she tried to talk him out of the plan but could not. Her defense is based on the assertion that she was coerced into taking part in the ruse.
"I think I cried all the way home as I was driving," she said. "I was frightened. I was being asked to do something I didn't want to do, and I didn't know how to get out of it."
Asked by prosecutors why she picked him up that day and embarked on a life of crime, she said she was afraid he would leave her if she didn't do what she was told.
"If I didn't pick him up I didn't know what would happen," she said. "I was frightened he might walk out on me as I couldn't live on my own."
She also told the court Friday that she did not know it was a crime to falsely report a person's death and then make a life insurance claim.
Her testimony, delivered through a veil of tears, describes the tragedy and farce of their life on the run. She said the constant lying drove her to the brink of suicide and cost her the affection of the couple's two grown sons — Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29 — who were cruelly told for more than five years that their father was dead.
Recent comments
I would like to hear the outcome of the trials . I hope the paper...
dave | July 20, 2008 at 5:59 p.m.
