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ITN
Canoe fraud sons 'feel betrayed'
Canoe fraud sons 'feel betrayed'
The sons of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin have described how they feel betrayed by their mother.Mark Darwin, 32, told Teesside Crown Court his "world was crushed" when he was told his father was missing presumed dead off the Hartlepool coast in 2002.He went on to tell the court of his anger at his mother Anne when he saw a photograph on the internet of his parents in Panama four years later."I couldn't believe the fact she knew he was alive all this time and I had been lied to for God knows how long."His brother Anthony, 29, told the court that when he saw the photo he felt "betrayed".Anne Darwin, 56, who denies six counts of fraud and nine counts of money laundering, dabbed her eyes in the dock and blew her nose as Mark gave evidence against her.The jury was told that Anthony was going to propose to his fiancee, Louise, during a holiday to Canada when his father disappeared.He broke short the trip and visited his mother at their home in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, to find her "crying and shaking".In the weeks that followed he searched the internet for any information about people missing at sea and contacted the missing persons register.He said: "I knew the police would be doing these things but it was a way of me doing something."When his father reappeared at a London police station last year, Anthony told the court he felt "disbelief and anger" because he originally thought it was someone pretending to be his dad.When he saw his father in the police station he felt "surprised, amazed, still almost disbelieving".On December 4 last year the Panama photo of his parents emerged, but he told the court he initially thought it had been doctored.It was only the next day when he read a newspaper article with his mother's admission that the image was real that he finally believed it.Asked how he felt when he realised, Anthony scratched his head and replied: "Upset, betrayed, I don't know."His older brother Mark was at a wedding in Balham, south London, when he was telephoned by the police to say his father had walked into a police station.He told the jury he had no idea his father was still alive up until he met him. He said he telephoned his mother, now living in Panama.He said: "I rambled for ten minutes and explained my dad had turned up and I am sat next to him. She sounded really shocked that he had turned up after all these years."Mark agreed with David Waters QC, defending, that he had felt extreme trauma and anger towards his mother when the Panama photograph was published.The prosecution alleges that Darwin, a former doctor's receptionist, used "guile, convincing pretence, persistence and guts" to trick people into believing her husband had drowned and pull off a £250,000 con.She denies the offences and and has put forward an unusual defence of "marital coercion" - claiming her husband forced her to go along with his plan.Earlier, the court heard how she "lied at length" to cover up her part in the insurance con.Even when presented with overwhelming evidence by police relating to her back-from-the-dead canoeist husband, Darwin stuck resolutely to her story that she was a bereaved widow.On March 21, 2002, Mr Darwin, 57, pushed his canoe out to sea at Seaton Carew near Hartlepool then disappeared, living rough before fleeing to Panama, Central America.It was left to his wife to convince the authorities he had drowned and con insurers out of £250,000 before joining him abroad, said Andrew Robertson QC, prosecuting.He told Teesside Crown Court: "It is the Crown's submission that far from dealing here with a 'shrinking violet', we have here a determined, resolute woman who was able to lie and deceive at length - literally at length."Who was able to act out equally the emotions of a tragically bereaved widow and the emotions of a weak woman who was somehow bullied into telling lies for nigh on six years much, as she would have you believe, against her true nature."Mr Darwin will be sentenced later after admitting seven charges of deception and one charge of making false statements to procure a passport.Mr Robertson said the couple needed money after buying a string of homes in Durham and Seaton Carew and racking up debts of £300,000.
ITN | July 15, 2008
