00:01:49
ITN
'Dead' canoeist returns to North East
'Dead' canoeist returns to North East
Police are questioning back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin on suspicion of fraud.The 57-year-old was driven back to the North East and arrived at Kirkleatham Police Station late on Wednesday night. He was arrested hours earlier at his son Anthony's home in Basingstoke, Hampshire.Darwin covered his head with a newspaper as he arrived at the police station in a silver VW Passat, flanked by two police officers.He sat in the back behind the front seat passenger and kept his head bowed as photographers crowded round the car.The police station stands a few miles outside Middlesbrough, across the Tees estuary from Seaton Carew where Darwin was reported missing five-and-a-half years ago.Meanwhile, Darwin's wife Anne has been confronted with a photo apparently showing the couple together in Panama last year.Anne Darwin is reported to have broken down in tears and confirmed the picture is genuine, telling reporters that her life had become a "nightmare".According to reports she said: "Yes, that's him. My sons will never forgive me. They knew nothing. They thought John was dead. Now they are going to hate me."The snap showing the couple together, smiling side by side, was taken when they stayed in an apartment rented through the firm Move to Panama.A couple named John and Anne are pictured on the company's website with the firm's boss Mario Vilar but Mr Vilar said they had not used the surname Darwin.Mrs Darwin, who emigrated to Panama six weeks ago, said she now plans to return to Britain even though she is terrified she may end up in jail."I don't want to live my life as a fugitive. I'll have to go back because I won't have any life here," she said.Her husband appeared as if out of the blue on Saturday, when he walked into a London police station and announced: "I think I am a missing person."He was declared dead after his disappearance in March 2002 during a canoeing trip within sight of his home in Seaton Carew near Hartlepool.Mrs Darwin, 55, claimed she had initially thought her husband had died in the canoeing accident but realised he was still alive when he had got in touch "years later".She said she had known he was going back to Britain but she had not expected him to hand himself in to police.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
ITN | December 6, 2007
