British expat David Hunter who killed terminally ill wife in Cyprus handed two-year sentence for manslaughter
David Hunter, the British pensioner who killed his terminally ill wife in Cyprus, has been sentenced to two years after he was found guilty of manslaughter.
But Hunter was released on Monday after Cypriot prison authorities officially calculated his release date, his legal team have said.
The 76-year-old has already spent 19 months in custody so has already served the majority of his sentence, according to Michael Polak, the director of Justice Abroad.
The couple were married for 52 years
Mr Polak, whose organisation is representing Hunter, said that in Cyprus a defendant will spend 10 months in custody for every year they are jailed.
Janice Hunter, 74, died of asphyxiation at the couple’s retirement home near Paphos in December 2021.
Hunter, a former coal miner from Northumberland, admitted killing his wife but denied murder.
He told a Cyprus court she had blood cancer and “begged him” to take her life because she was in so much pain.
Hunter was cleared of murdering his wife but was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter earlier this month.
Lesley Cawthorne – the daughter of David and Janice Hunter – told Sky News she had spoken to her father on FaceTime after the sentencing hearing.
She said she and her father were “elated, stunned and deeply, deeply grateful” following his release.
Mr Polak said Hunter’s legal team were “very pleased” with the sentence.
British pensioner David Hunter waves to journalists while being escorted to a police van outside a courthouse in Paphos
“The sentencing exercise was not a simple one given that a case like this has never come before the courts of Cyprus before,” Mr Polak said.
He added: “We submitted extensive sentencing case law from across the common law world, from Australia to Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to assist the court in coming to a decision which was fair.
“The result of today’s hearing, and the court’s previous decision finding Hunter not guilty of murder, is what we have been fighting for in this case and David is very pleased with the outcome today.
“David would like to thank his legal team for their work, the experts who supported his case, and everyone from Cyprus, the United Kingdom, and around the world who has supported him.
“This has been a tragic case and difficult for all of those involved with it, but today’s decision was the right one and allows David and his family to grieve together.”
David and Janice Hunter
Hunter told his trial, which lasted more than a year, that his wife “cried and begged” him to end her life.
He broke down in tears as he said he would “never in a million years” have taken Mrs Hunter’s life unless she had asked him to.
He showed the court how he held his hands over his wife’s mouth and nose and said he eventually decided to grant her wish after she became “hysterical”.
The court heard he then tried to kill himself by taking an overdose, but medics arrived in time to save him.
His legal team had argued Hunter should be given a suspended sentence, in a case which is a legal first in the country.
The house in Tremithousa, Cyprus where Janice Hunter was killed by her husband David
In mitigation last week, his defence lawyer, Ritsa Pekri, said his motive was to “liberate his wife from all that she was going through due to her health conditions”.
The court heard it was Mrs Hunter’s “wish” to die and that her husband “had only feelings of love for her”.
The couple’s daughter, Lesley Cawthorne, told Sky News after the conviction was handed down: “I’m incredibly relieved that it’s manslaughter rather than murder.
“It’s the best we could have hoped for in the circumstances.”
World
Ex-NHS doctor stuck in Gaza during hospital placement says family are ‘terrified’ but he ‘has to keep going’
The European Hospital, in southern Gaza, is a dangerous place to be.
The facility is the only remaining hospital east of the city of Rafah and an Israeli military operation has come perilously close to its doors.
It was a hazardous time then, for three British medics to begin a short placement, arriving at the hospital just a few days before the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) began its campaign.
Now they are unable to leave.
A patient is treated at the European Hospital. Pic: Fajr Scientific
We managed to speak to one of these doctors – an orthopaedic and peripheral nerve surgeon from London called Mohammed Tahir.
He volunteered with a non-profit medical charity called Fajr Scientific and I asked him to describe what he has been seeing.
“In the last few days, with the intensifying of the bombing in Rafah, we are getting many blast injuries here,” he said.
“People literally, their limbs and their bodies torn to shreds. Children with mutilated faces, kids whose limbs we’ve had to amputate because of the complexity of the injuries.”
Gaza latest: Israel’s use of weapons provided by US likely violated international law – report
Pic: Fajr Scientific
“When did you arrive? What date did you enter Gaza?” I asked.
“I’ll be honest with you. I mean, right now, night, day, (the) days of the week have all evaporated.
“I work from morning until night, every day. Sometimes I finish at 4am, so I’ve lost track of time. I can’t even remember what day (it is). It was circa around one and a half weeks ago.”
He accepts that he was taking a risk by travelling to Gaza when he did.
Pic: Fajr Scientific
“Before coming here, I was warned by several friends, do not go now, because the Rafah invasion is imminent, and you are going over a very dangerous time,” he said.
“But I was anxious, a little bit scared to come, but then I thought if not me, then who?”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Dr Tahir has dealt with anxiety – but has had to grapple with personal distress.
This is the first time he has worked in a war zone and the nature and intensity of the work has been overwhelming.
The surgeon says he has dealt with 150 cases in the past 10 days.
Pic: Fajr Scientific
“(There was) an airstrike, the parents were killed, there were two small children, one of whom we tried to resuscitate, but he was covered in burns from head to toe and we called it, he died,” he said.
“His sister by the side was also covered in wounds, massive wounds to our forehead. Her skull was exposed and she had a skull fracture too.
“And I’m there looking at these two children wondering: ‘What did they do?’.”
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Israel Rafah incursion explained
The staff at the European Hospital do their best to keep people alive – but their workplace has also become a refuge.
“This is a refugee camp,” said Dr Tahir.
“It is a hospital within a refugee camp. You have people, children and women sleeping on floors, in corridors, on stairs, even with makeshift tents inside, tents outside too.”
Read more from Sky News:
UK drops aid into Gaza by parachute
Israeli hostages’ families urge ceasefire
There is a perception that the presence of foreign medical doctors offers a measure of security.
Listen above then tap here to follow the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
“There are a lot of families here looking for shelter because they know outside of the perimeter of this hospital they can be killed,” he said.
“When they see us as people from foreign (medical) missions, they feel that we are, in effect, human shields for them against Israeli airstrikes because we are their protection.
“And when they hear that we have to be evacuated or that there is a whisper (of that), the entire population in the hospital are gripped with fear and panic that they are about to die.”
When I put it to the surgeon that the Israelis have described their operation in southern Gaza as a limited, counter-terrorism operation, he took 4 or 5 seconds to respond.
“What I see on the floor in real life is very different to that.”
People have taken refuge at the hospital
Tents have been set up on the grounds of the facility
One thing Dr Tahir cannot do is leave.
When the IDF captured the Gaza side of the Rafah Crossing on the first day of their operation, they shut down the main humanitarian route in and out of the territory.
I asked the surgeon how he felt about it.
“I feel for my family, not for myself. I know that they are terrified,” he said.
“I know that my friends and family are really concerned for my wellbeing.
“And I think it hurts them more than it hurts me… but the intensity of the feeling that I have because of the tragedies that I am seeing, because of the suffering I’m seeing it.
“I just feel like it cannot stop. I have to keep going and going and going. There is no time to rest, there is no time to sleep. I don’t have that luxury right now.”
World
Terror, grief and rising smoke leave streets completely empty – as Ukrainians flee border town’s fiercest attack yet
Russian forces launched a surprise attack early on Friday in an attempt to open a new front in the war.
Vovchansk – a town 5km from Ukraine’s border with Russia – was one of its targets.
The Russian forces reportedly advanced 1km before Ukrainian reinforcements held them off.
Sky’s Deborah Haynes was there.
Terror and grief were the overwhelming emotions of dozens of mainly elderly men and women who fled the Ukrainian border town of Vovchansk after the Russian attack.
Gathered at an evacuation point just outside the town, they said it had been the fiercest fighting they had ever experienced since the full-scale invasion began more than two years ago.
Follow latest updates:
‘Fierce battle’ after Russia launches attack in Kharkiv
Residents gathered at an evacuation point just outside the town
On Friday, Sky News followed a pair of volunteer rescuers, who drove a white van into the town to help residents evacuate.
Smoke hung over the road on the way – we were told all roads into Vovchansk were being targeted by Russian artillery, rockets and drones.
One of the attacks had ignited a fire in a forest that lined the road, sending clouds of smoke into the air.
Missiles struck Kharkiv before the Russian ground offensive began. Pic: Reuters
The streets of the part of the town we entered were almost completely empty.
We pulled into a residential area of bungalows.
A group of five elderly men and women were on a bench on the side of the road, seemingly happy to stay put.
The rescue team pulled up outside an address where they had been told four residents wanted to be evacuated.
They knocked on the door but no one replied.
Instead, a petite grey-haired woman who lives in the house next door pushed open her green gate and told the rescuers that her neighbours had already gone.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Distraught, Valentina, 74, had no plans to leave but the rescuers managed to persuade her.
“Let’s go, don’t stay here, it is dangerous,” they said.
Suddenly there was a boom – it seemed to change her mind.
Gathering a few simple belongings, she was led out of her home and onto the minibus.
People fleeing the Ukrainian border town of Vovchansk after Russian forces attacked
The mayor said some 500 people from the town have been evacuated since the attack began, but he said the town’s population was 3,000, with many more yet to leave.
Evacuation operations are expected to continue.
Apple has apologised for its new iPad Pro advert where it crushed cameras, books and musical instruments, saying it “missed the mark”.
The advert – shared online by Apple chief executive Tim Cook – also featured creative tools such as a record player and a metronome being crushed in an industrial press.
It was intended to show off the wide range of tools that the thinnest ever iPad can be used for.
But the advert came under fire, with actor Hugh Grant saying it showed the “destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley”.
In a statement, Apple’s vice president of marketing communications Tor Myhren said: “Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world.
“Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”
Songwriter Crispin Hunt called the advert “surprisingly tone-deaf” and said Apple “previously enabled and championed creativity”.
Read more:
Apple reports sharp drop in iPhone sales
Apple sued for ‘illegal monopoly’ on smartphones
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Adam Singer, from advertising technology company AdQuick, called it the “(unintentional) perfect metaphor for today’s creative dark age”.
“Compress organic instruments, joyful/imperfect machines, tangible art, our entire physical reality into a soulless, postmodern, read-only device a multi-trillion dollar corporation controls what you do with,” he wrote on X.
Sales for iPads dropped 17% for January to March compared to the same period a year ago. The tablets currently account for just 6% of the company’s sales.
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