David Hunter shared tearful call with daughter after prison release

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Retired British miner David Hunter has said he shared a tearful call with his daughter after he was allowed to walk free from prison in Cyprus shortly after his sentence for the manslaughter of his seriously ill wife.

Hunter, 76, was jailed for two years on Monday for the manslaughter of Janice, 74, his spouse of 52 years, who died of asphyxiation at their home near the coastal resort town of Paphos in December 2021.

But he was released from prison almost immediately, having already served 19 months in custody, and, visibly emotional, told reporters outside court that he could not find the words to describe his feelings.

In an interview with the Mail, Hunter spoke of how he and his daughter, Lesley Cawthorne, both cried in an emotional video call made after he was released.

“I feel numb, it doesn’t feel real,” he told the Mail.

“When I spoke to Lesley the first thing I said was, ‘I love you’.”

He added: “We were both crying. She couldn’t talk. She started crying and she couldn’t say a word.”

The pensioner also said a police officer embraced him and told him he would be released following his sentence, the Mail reported.

“The policeman hugged me and said, ‘Congratulations David, you’re free, you got the result you deserve.’

“I just shook his hand and said: ‘Thanks, mate’.”

Ms Cawthorne, who launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for Hunter’s defence, said: “Speaking to my daddy was the most amazing thing. I feel like my heart has been put back together.”

She continued: “I thought I’d lost him forever. I cannot believe it. It’s amazing.

“I don’t know what to say. When I see him I’m going to hug him and never, ever let him go.

“I’m going to feed him and make sure he’s eating and I’m going to just hug him so tightly.

“I just didn’t think, after the way the case has gone, that this was possible.”

Ms Cawthorne previously said she believes her father will initially choose to stay in Cyprus to be near Mrs Hunter’s grave and “say his goodbyes properly”.

Judges had found Hunter not guilty of the more serious charge of premeditated murder.

Hunter, from Ashington, Northumberland, told his trial, which lasted for more than a year, that his wife “cried and begged” him to end her life as she suffered from blood cancer.

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.

During the sentencing hearing, judge Michalis Droussiotis said: “We are not facing a typical case. This is not a case acting out of animosity or differences between two people that led to someone taking another’s life.

“Before us is a unique case of taking human life on the basis of feelings of love, with the aim of relieving the person of their suffering that came due to their illness.”

Judge Droussiotis said there may never have been a case like this in Cyprus and that the message for any future similar cases had to be that “taking away human life, even with the intention of relieving suffering, is a crime”.