Harrowing moment daughter begs dad not to kill himself minutes after he suffocated her terminally ill mum
THIS is the harrowing moment a daughter begged her father not to kill himself just minutes after he’d suffocated her terminally ill mum.
Lesley Cawthorne, 49, can be seen frantically video calling her Cyprus-based father David Hunter from her UK home.
He had suffocated her mother and his wife of 52 years just moments earlier, and was talking of taking his own life.
In the video call, played today in Paphos assize court in Cyprus, Lesley can be heard saying: “Daddy just concentrate on me, Daddy concentrate on me.
“Daddy forget about everybody else, forget about everything else concentrate on me, not her, not anybody else, just me and you.
“Daddy you love me, you know you do, I’m your girl. You’ve always loved me. I’m your girl, I’m your girl daddy.”
The Brit woman starts fighting tears, her voice breaking: “I’m your little girl. Remember when I was in hospital, and you were there in the lift, when I came around.
“And daddy remember how you walked me down the aisle – you said I was beautiful. I’m your girl – she says through tears – I’m your girl.
“You can’t leave me. Daddy please, please, daddy I’m begging you. Daddy.”
Hunter, a former miner from Ashington in Northumberland, watched in court as the video showed Lesley screaming for him to survive.
The 75-year-old is accused of the pre-meditated murder of his wife Janice, 74, who had been suffering from terminal leukaemia at their retirement home in Cyprus.
After suffocating her on December 18, 2021, he called his UK-based brother William to confess.
He then told his brother his plan to take his own life with a drugs and alcohol overdose.
William alerted the police who raced to Lesley’s Norfolk home and asked her to video call her father for evidence.
Hunter says he suffocated his wife because she no longer wanted to live due to the agony caused by her terminal illness.
The Mirror reported Hunter’s lawyer Michael Polak, from Justice Abroad, said afterwards: “The reason we played the video in court is because it shows David is in a state of shock and doesn’t understand what’s going on around him.”
BROKE DOWN IN TEARS
He continued: “We say that when the statements were taken from him by police he was in no state to be interviewed.
“It’s remarkable that the police interviewed him without any psychiatric assessment of him.
“There’s no way that if this case had been in the UK he would have been interviewed in those circumstances because police would have got a psychiatric assessment to make sure he’s OK and to make sure the evidence is reliable.
“This, along with the fact he didn’t have a lawyer or interpretation, mean that those statements should be excluded from the case.”
Today’s pre-trial hearing was the first time Hunter, 75, had spoken in court since he was remanded in custody.
The father broke down in tears when the prosecution, under cross-examination, showed him a photo of his wife’s lifeless body in their home.
Hunter refuted claims Janice had struggled when he suffocated her, after prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou read a statement from him where he said she had.
The statement read: “I went back from the sofa she was sitting on and closed her nose and mouth with both my hands for about 10-15 minutes until Janice died.
“I was trying to save her by killing her. Janice was resisting and was holding my hands.”
The statement was taken down by a Cypriot detective in the immediate aftermath of Janice’s death.
‘SHE WAS BEGGING ME’
Hunter today insisted: “My wife was just lying there.
“Later on I was told she struggled but I know I would never hurt my wife.
“My hands had no scratches on them.”
Speaking outside court afterwards, the 75-year-old said: “I never would have killed her in a million years.
“She didn’t ask me, she begged me. The last five weeks she was begging me.
“She didn’t resist. Because of the cancer she couldn’t even lift her hands.”
Prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou said Hunter had told police officers on the evening of Janice’s death what he had done.
He said: “You told [an officer] ‘my wife has leukaemia and she had too much pain and she asked me to help her not to suffer any more.
“‘Afterwards I killed her with my hands.’.”
‘KILLED HER TO SAVE HER’
Mr Hadjikyrou also said Hunter had told a nurse he “couldn’t stand to see [Janice] suffer” and that he told police when in hospital: “I killed her to save her.”
Hunter today said he could not remember saying any of those things.
Mr Hadjikyrou said Hunter made a confession whereby the Brit said Janice had told him: “Dave, I do not want to live anymore.”
In the same statement, taken in the immediate aftermath, Mr Hadjikyrou said Hunter revealed: “As soon as killed her I kissed her goodbye.
“I know what I did to Janice was wrong but now Janice does not suffer and she can rest in peace.”
Hunter said he cannot remember making any of these statements.
He told the court that when police came to his home in the village of Tremithousa, where he and Janice had retired to, he recalls everything looking “like a dream” after taking “all the drugs in his house”.
Hunter said: “When [the police officer] was asking questions all I could see was his face – like a tunnel.
“I wasn’t listening because my mind was elsewhere.”
He said he did not know anything in relation to his rights as a suspect and that he remembered “very little” from the evening.
His defence argues statements taken between December 18 and 21 – the date when he was psychologically assessed – should be thrown out.