A British man accused of killing his terminally ill wife could be looking at a life sentence in a Cyprus jail after a previously agreed plea deal was sensationally thrown out.
David Hunter had negotiated a reduced charge of manslaughter, down from pre-meditated murder, after his lawyers met with prosecutors. The lesser charge carries a 10-year sentence in Cypriot prisons.
But the retired miner, from Northumberland, now faces spending the rest of his life behind bars after the plea deal was thrown out and a full-blown murder trial was announced. As part of the deal, the 75-year-old would have admitted causing the death of his wife of 56 years Janice, at her request, at their home in Paphos in December 2021.
Lawyers acting for Hunter had hoped he would plead guilty to the reduced charge on Tuesday, sparing him a death in custody. Michael Polak, director of campaign group Justice Abroad, has accused Cypriot prosecutors of acting in bad faith after pulling the unexpected reversal.
He said: "We are very disappointed by the decision of the prosecution to go back on the agreed facts that they had put forward and which had been agreed between the parties so that the charge could be changed to manslaughter. It is clear the prosecution in this case is attempting to ensure Mr Hunter receives the highest possible sentence and to prevent mitigating factors, which arise from the evidence in the case, from being put before the Court.
"We entered into dialogue with the prosecution in good faith and unfortunately it appears the case against Mr Hunter is being treated like a game by the Cypriot authorities. Getting justice in Cyprus is always difficult as we have experienced in the past in cases of foreign nationals who have appeared here.
"However we will continue to fight for David, who continues to suffer, to ensure he gets the best possible result in this very sad case."
At the opening of the trial in September at the Paphos district court, Hunter had wept as he described how his life had changed following the loss of his "best friend". He said: "She wasn't just my wife she was my best friend. It's like a black hole. I used to think I could never imagine life without Janice but it's just so much harder.
"I just live day to day. I have to keep my chin up.
"Janice's sister had died from leukaemia and she saw what was coming. She made me promise her if she ever got it to help her.
"She said I don't want to go through that. She knew the symptoms and saw them coming."
Hunter is said to have suffocated Janice, who had been diagnosed with leukaemia in 2016, before trying to take his own life. However, he was found and survived.
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