‘I refused to kill my wife but she begged me’: David Hunter reveals he pleaded with his wife to ‘keep fighting’ as he relives the harrowing moment she asked him to help her die – in his first TV appearance since jail release

David Hunter, the British pensioner freed after spending over a year in prison for killing his terminally ill spouse, today tearfully described how his wife had ‘begged’ him to end her life.

Mr Hunter, 76, was speaking to Good Morning Britain in Paphos and said that Janice had started asking him to help her die for around six weeks but he had repeatedly told her: ‘I couldn’t take my wife’s life’.

He said: ‘I kept saying no. I said: “Keep fighting. I don’t want to hurt you” and she replied: “You can’t hurt me any more than the pain I have now”.’

The couple were married for more than 50 years and Mr Hunter described the heartbreaking moment he finally agreed to assist her death. He suffocated her in December 2021 and then tried to kill himself with a drugs overdose.

He said: ‘She kept asking me. I kept refusing. In the last two weeks she was pressuring me, begging me and at one point became quite hysterical. And I said: “Ok. I’ll help you. But I won’t tell you when and I won’t tell you how”. But I didn’t want to do it. I hoped that it would pacify her and she would change her mind. But she didn’t’.

David Hunter has spoken to Good Morning Britain today and said he refused her pleas for six weeks until he suffocated her in December 2021

Mr Hunter then ended his wife’s life in December 2021 after her pain and suffering became too great. 

Today he admitted he is still shocked to be free having expected to spend another five years in prison.

But he  had wept on the steps of Pathos District Court in Cyprus last week after he was convicted of manslaughter for killing his childhood sweetheart Janice, 74 – but released from jail.

Judges ruled that after 19 months in Nicosia prison, he had served enough time. And he immediately went to visit his wife’s grave for the first time.

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Janice’s grave is around 7km north of Paphos, the cemetery lies in the village of Tremithousa, where he and his late wife lived.

The Northumberland-born retired miner said he finally felt his wife could ‘rest in peace’.

Mr and Mrs Hunter were married for 52 years after first meeting at a miners’ hall party.

The couple went on to marry at St John’s Church in Ashington in 1969 and bought a property in Cyprus 30 years later, before moving to the island to retire there.

But in 2016 Mrs Hunter was diagnosed with blood cancer and by late 2021 she was reduced to wearing nappies, covered in skin lesions and could no longer stand.

Mr Hunter told the court in Paphos how his wife had ‘cried and begged’ him to end her life and ‘liberate’ her as she endured agonising pain from blood cancer.

The Hunters sold their home in Ashington in 2001 to live permanently in Paphos (pictured with their daughter Lesley)

David Hunter told his mum that he had met ‘the most stunning girl you’ve ever seen’

David’s wish is to remain in Cyprus, where they shared 16 gloriously happy years of retirement before she became ill, so he can be close to her

He was put on trial for murder but last month judges dismissed this charge and convicted him of manslaughter.

He was sentenced to two years yesterday and was freed after Cyprus authorities deemed he had already served his time in jail.

Delivering his sentence, Judge Michalis Droussiotis said: ‘Before us is a unique case of taking human life on the basis of feelings of love, with the aim of relieving a person of their suffering that came due to their illness.’