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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Josh Salisbury

Canoe conman John Darwin serenaded by wife in social media videos

Canoe fraudster John Darwin has been filmed being serenaded in his second wife’s social media videos.

Darwin faked his own death in a canoeing accident in 2002 so that his then wife could cash in his life insurance policy.

He then lived abroad in Panama before returning to the UK in 2007, claiming amnesia, only for the story to quickly unravel.

He is now appearing in videos created by his second wife, Marcy Darwin, who describes herself as a “digital creator”, reports the MailOnline.

In one video, Ms Darwin, 49, serenades the father-of-two and dances around him.

The 72-year-old can be seen as she sings to him and rubs his chest, while he is sat wearing shorts and a white t-shirt.

Another video shows the couple with a hot water bottle pressed between their heads as music plays.

A source told the paper: “The pair of them are obviously still keen for attention despite everything that happened.”

John Darwin’s ex-wife Anne Darwin (AFP via Getty Images)

Darwin hit headlines around the world when he turned up at a central London police station in December 2007, claiming not to remember who he was.

But suspicions were quickly aroused when it was uncovered that he was £700,000 in debt when he went missing.

A photograph taken by an estate agent in Panama also later emerged which showed John with his then wife Anne in 2006 - at a time when he was presumed dead.

The couple had bought a £200,000 property in Panama in 2007 using John’s life insurance money.

However, that same year, Panama changed its visa rules, meaning checks taken on a passport used by John under the name “John Jones” would not have passed scrutiny.

The Darwins’ two sons were not informed by their mother and father of the fraud - leading them to believe their father really had died.

Police later arrested Darwin at his son house in Basingstoke.

He was sentenced to six years and three months in prison while ex-wife Anne received six years and six months.

The story was dramatised last year in the ITV series The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, starring Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan in the title roles.

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