British husband who smothered cancer-stricken wife recalls her final days begging him to take her life

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A retired miner who killed his seriously ill wife said he was expecting to spend about five more years in a Cypriot prison before a judge announced his sentence.

British expat David Hunter was released from custody last week after a court sentenced him to two years in jail for the manslaughter of Janice, his spouse of 52 years.

The 76-year-old was allowed to walk free within 15 minutes of being sentenced at Paphos District Court due to time already served and good behaviour.

Mr Hunter spent 19 months in prison before being cleared of premeditated murder by a three-judge panel, but found guilty of manslaughter.

On Monday the pensioner said that as he was about to be sentenced he was expecting “about five years”.

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The pensioner told Good Morning Britain: “I was prepared for it, I prepared my mind for it, I always prepared for the worst.”

Mr Hunter now has a new home in Cyprus, in the same village where he and his wife lived up until their death.

“I couldn’t be more pleased – I’m living where I wanted to be – 200 metres from my wife’s grave,” he said.

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Mr Hunter said he missed seeing his wife’s funeral procession by “seconds” when police officers wouldn’t let him stop to look at it while transporting him through the village.

“I didn’t quite get a glimpse of the coffin,” he said.

“That was one of the worst days in prison. Another few seconds and I would have seen my wife’s coffin.”

“I could see (the priest) coming up to the church. I said: ‘please let’s stop’.

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“They wouldn’t let me stop. They didn’t care, they just took me away.”

He said he tried to take his own life after Mrs Hunter’s death because he “didn’t want to live without her”.

“When the police came, my feeling was ‘I don’t care what you do’.”

Mr Hunter said he and Mrs Hunter spent “the 16 best years we’ve ever had” after retiring to Cyprus, before his wife became ill with a rare form of blood cancer.

He told presenters Ed Balls and Ranvir Singh that Mrs Hunter asked him to help end her life around six to eight weeks before her death.

“I just said: ‘no, keep fighting’. I said: ‘I don’t want to hurt you’. She said ‘you can’t hurt me anymore’.

“She kept asking me and I kept refusing.

“The last two weeks she pressured me and pressured me, she was begging me. At one point she got quite hysterical.

“She was begging the last few days and crying all the time. She was in really bad pain.”

Mr Hunter said he had had “quite a few nightmares” since killing Mrs Hunter and would like the British and Cypriot governments to work together to discuss a law on assisted dying.

“When you take someone’s life, especially your wife who you love, it hurts.

“I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through.”