Fake-death canoeist's wife tells court: 'I didn't want the money. Money was not important to me'

THE wife of the back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin told jurors yesterday that she did not want a £250,000 life insurance pay-out and "money was not important" to her.

But Anne Darwin, a former doctor's receptionist, was accused by prosecutors of making a "last-ditch" attempt to escape justice for her part in the audacious scam.

Mrs Darwin repeatedly lied and changed her story to say her 57-year-old husband was by her side whenever fraudulent insurance claims were made, the jury was told.

The 56-year-old claimed she was "trapped" by her ex-prison officer husband's plan, which would see them out of debt and able to start a new life in Panama.

In cross-examination, Andrew Robertson QC, said: "It is now to your advantage to lie about him being present because it gives you your last-ditch hope of getting away with all this. That's what it comes to, doesn't it?"

She denied this and he countered: "That's what this trial is all about, you pushing everything to the wire: when that is proved to be a lie, change tack; when that is proved to be a lie, change tack again. This is the last wire, Mrs Darwin, and you are prepared to fight this case because this is your last hope of getting away with it, isn't it? It is nothing to do with the truth."

Mrs Darwin shook her head no in response. She is employing the unusual defence of marital coercion, under which she claims that her husband forced her to act against her will, and was present when each offence was committed.

Mrs Darwin broke down in tears when she explained that her husband had made her lie to their sons Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, that he had died at sea in a canoeing accident outside the couple's seafront home in Seaton Carew, Teesside, in 2002.

Mr Robertson said she must have been motivated by making cash. Mrs Darwin wept: "I didn't want the money. Money was not important to me."

When Mr Robertson asked Mrs Darwin why she could not have told her sons their father was not dead and that he had a "mad idea" of getting money from the insurance firm, she replied: "Because I felt trapped."

Asked why she hugged Mark and told him "I think I have lost him", the day after Darwin's fake death, she replied: "I was doing what I thought I should do."

Mr Robertson said: "And doing it well." She replied: "I was feeling their pain." Mr Robertson butted in: "Feeling their pain? You, their mother, could have brought it to an end like that.

"Can't you speak to your children – 'your dad has gone off the rails for goodness sake, we have to sort it out'."

She replied: "It's not as easy as that. We couldn't lay our problems on their shoulders." Mr Robertson said: "But you could tell them their father was dead." Mrs Darwin said she thought the pretence would only have to last a few months before she could come clean to the children. Mr Robertson asked her if pretending someone was dead to claim insurance money was fraud. She replied: "I didn't understand it to be fraud."

Her sons were in the public gallery to watch the exchanges. Mr Robertson accused her of being an accomplished liar, embellishing her story by throwing flowers into the sea on the anniversary of his "death".

"That was probably to provide some moments of comfort for Mark and Anthony," she said.

She denies six counts of deception and nine counts of money laundering. The trial, at Teesside Crown Court, continues.

Court read 'damning' e-mails that talk of shopping for knickers

ANNE Darwin yesterday told how her husband sent e-mails in her name discussing bikinis and women's underwear.

The former doctor's receptionist was explaining to a jury at Teesside Crown Court how her "dead" husband wrote e-mails for her to send to him, their sons and friends back in the UK from the Panama.

In the e-mail, Mrs Darwin writes of doing the housework in her bikini and going shopping in the local high street – noting how cheap women's underwear was.

Mrs Darwin, 56, who is a practising Catholic and regular churchgoer, describes how she had gone to a church in Panama and met a friendly priest – although she struggled with conversation because she did not speak Spanish.

Andrew Robertson QC, prosecuting, asked the defendant that if she was telling the truth on Thursday when giving evidence to the jury that her husband never went to church – why would he describe a conversation in Panama with a priest.

"You are not only person a person who lies well but you do it cleverly, do you realise how damning parts of these e-mails are?" he asked Mrs Darwin. "So you have to say that John wrote it now because you realise you were sunk.

"Why on earth was he sending e-mails to himself? You're just lying, lying and lying."

Recalling Mrs Darwin's evidence that her husband was good at maths and she was better at English, Mr Robertson noted: "It is a very fluent e-mail beautifully written." Reading Mrs Darwin's e-mail to the jury, he said: "I walked down the main shopping street. It goes for about two miles.

"It has everything for such low prices, knickers from 10p and jeans for a pound."

The prosecutor then asked Mrs Darwin: "Why is John interested in buying knickers?"

She immediately replied: "That's the sort of person John was."