THE wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin was accused yesterday of lying to make the facts fit her complex defence to £250,000 fraud charges and to “save her skin”.
Jul 22 2008 by jl newsdesk1, The Journal
Anne Darwin, 56, helped her husband fake his death in a staged sea tragedy and then cashed in insurance policies and pensions, Teesside Crown Court has heard. Even their sons Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, were kept in the dark, duped by the scam, the jury heard.
She denies six counts of dishonesty and nine money laundering charges, admitting the frauds took place but claiming “marital coercion”.
The unusual defence means Mr Darwin, a former prison officer, from Seaton Carew, Teesside, made her act against her will and was present each time an offence was committed.
But Andrew Robertson, QC, prosecuting, told the court she did not inform police Mr Darwin was present when she bought £10,000-worth of Premium Bonds using fraudulently obtained cash.
He said: “It shows unequivocally in our submission how she has lied to you and how she adjusts her account to save her own skin to try to run the defence before you.”
The now infamous photograph of the Darwins in Panama four years after he disappeared sums up the whole case, Mr Robertson said. He said: “It shows the two criminals in this case happy together in the land where they felt they were going to find some security away from the UK, each playing their own role, both equally guilty.”
On a number of counts, Mrs Darwin’s technical defence had failed because she had not proven her husband was with her when claims were posted to the insurers, or cheques cashed.
He also argued she had failed to show the jury that she was overpowered by her husband’s will.
He mentioned the sons’ evidence in which they said their parents were equal partners.
Mr Robertson accepted the original idea for the scam was Mr Darwin’s.
“It could be said he is responsible for getting her into the mess. She quite clearly went along with it when she did not have to and as such, she is equally responsible for the charges.”
Mr Robertson reminded the jury how Mrs Darwin threw flowers on to the sea on the anniversary of her husband’s faked disappearance, told a police officer when a body was recovered from the sea that she had wished it was John’s and burst into tears, and told a police press officer she could not grieve without a body.
David Waters QC, defending, said she could never have realised when she made a 30-second call to police to report him missing that it would end six years later in court and in the national headlines.
He said: “It is an extraordinary story and at the same time an immensely sad one.
“If ever there was a single act which set in train a sequence of largely unforeseen and even tragic events, it was that telephone call.”
The trial continues.
