British expat guilty of Cyprus mercy killing calls for law to be changed after prison release

A British pensioner who killed his terminally ill wife in Cyprus to end her suffering has said the law around “mercy killing” must be changed.

Retired miner David Hunter was freed from prison last week after a court sentenced him to two years in jail for the manslaughter of Janice, his spouse of 52 years.

“When you take someone’s life, especially your wife’s, who you love so much, it hurts, it really hurts,” Mr Hunter, 76, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

“I’ve had quite a few nightmares. I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through.”

He said governments needed to review the laws around mercy killings, adding: “I would like to see the Cypriot government and the British government get together and try to work something out, because I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s gone through all this.”

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Michael Polak, Mr Hunter’s lawyer and the director of Justice Abroad, told the broadcaster his client’s story shows the need for such a change.

“Well this case really shows us how difficult things can get when there’s no legalised euthanasia,” he said.

“David was put in one of the most difficult positions anyone can be put in, seeing a loved one in such terrible pain, and having to make a decision about what to do.”

Under the UK’s Suicide Act 1961, it is a criminal offence to help someone take their own life – punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Proposals to legalise assisted dying were debated in the House of Commons in 2015 but were rejected.

Mr Hunter has said he wants to stay in Cyprus so he can visit his wife’s grave every day.

Wife ‘begged’ husband to end her life

Hunter, from Ashington, Northumberland, told his trial – which lasted for more than a year – his wife had blood cancer and “begged him” to take her life because she was in so much pain.

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”.

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Judges heard he then tried to take his own life by taking an overdose but medics arrived in time to save him.

The court heard it was Mrs Hunter’s “wish” to die and her husband “had only feelings of love for her”.

The pensioner spent 19 months in prison before being cleared of premeditated murder but was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter by a three-judge panel.

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