Jess Hardiman
A man has shared the final words of his terminally ill wife before he ended her life, saying he still gets ‘nightmares’ about what happened.
David Hunter, a retired miner, said he killed his wife Janice at their home in Cyprus in December 2021 to end her suffering, claiming she had ‘begged’ him to end his life.
He was released from custody on 31 July after being sentenced to two years for manslaughter; as he had already served 19 months in prison, he was able to be released following a hearing.
Speaking to the Daily Mail from a hotel in Cyprus after being freed from prison, Hunter said he is still haunted by flashbacks of his final moments with his wife.
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He recalled: "Over six weeks she'd pleaded with me. She'd said, I don't want to carry on like this.
"Janice was in such pain. She was saying for weeks, 'Darl, I can't fight any more. I want to kill myself'. She was going through hell. I couldn't bear to see her like that.
"Of course, if we'd had the money and Janice hadn't been too ill to make the journey, we could have gone to Switzerland."
Hunter, who is originally from Ashington, Northumberland, had been married to wife Janice for 52 years, with the couple eventually retiring to their home near Paphos.
But he said when her life slipped away in front of him, she didn’t ‘look anything like’ the woman he had loved for five decades.
Hunter continued: "She just closed her eyes and said, 'Give us a kiss.' I kissed her on the cheek.
"I've seen some awful things in my life, but the memory of her face as she died. She went grey. Her jaw was twisted. I tried to straighten it. She looked nothing like my wife.
"Those are the nightmares I still get. I see her face in those nightmares. And they are always so vivid. There are always lots of faces, all Janice's face, and I turn round and think she is by me - but she's dead. I can't get those images out of my mind.
“She doesn't, she didn't, look anything like my Janice. Her face changed so quickly."
Hunter said the pair had an amazing life in Cyprus until his wife was diagnosed with blood cancer.
He said she told him she became ‘sick of life’ after realising she was ‘not going to get better’, adding: “She was dog-tired. One night she said I can't manage the stairs, so I put her on my back and carried her. After that, for the last six weeks, we slept on recliner chairs in the sitting room side-by-side. I held her hand.
"She said, I can't fight any more. I can't walk, I need help to go to the toilet. Nothing will get better. I want you to help me die. And I'd say, No, no. We'll just take it day by day.
"I kept thinking, 'What do I do?' I loved her so much and she was in such pain. Ten days before she died she was hysterical with pain. She begged me again to end it. I was hoping she'd change her mind. I was waiting for a miracle. It never came."
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.