Canoeist's wife remanded after court appearance
The wife of the former prison officer who allegedly faked his death in a canoe accident was today remanded in custody after appearing in court charged with two deception offences.
Anne Darwin, 57, was accused at Hartlepool magistrates court of dishonestly obtaining £25,000 and £137,000 in 2003. The first figure relates to a life insurance payout while the second covers a policy to settle her mortgage in the event of her husband's death. She was remanded until Friday when she will appear before the same court via video link.
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During the four-minute hearing, she spoke only to confirm her name.
Mrs Darwin, who moved to Panama seven weeks before her husband reappeared 10 days ago, was arrested at Manchester airport after arriving back in Britain on Sunday morning.
Her husband, John, 57, appeared in the same court yesterday charged with making an untrue statement to procure a passport and obtaining £25,000 by deception in relation to a life insurance policy. His case was also adjourned until Friday.
Mrs Darwin, wearing a cream-coloured woollen jumper, was accompanied by one female security guard during the court appearance.
Magistrates heard that she was accused of obtaining a money transfer by deception of £25,000 on May 16 2003 by claiming that her husband had been killed in an accident.
She is also accused of obtaining £137,000 by deception on May 29 2003 with similar claims.
The tanned mother-of-two sat impassively as the prosecutor, Philip Morley, opposed bail on the grounds that she might abscond.
"The crown do oppose bail because if granted bail, Mrs Darwin may fail to surrender. We say this because she does not have a fixed address in the UK and she has strong links to Panama and she has money in offshore bank accounts, if she was minded to leave the UK," he said.
Mr Darwin, a former teacher and prison officer, disappeared from his home in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, in March 2002, and was presumed drowned after his wrecked canoe was found. He walked into a central London police station 10 days ago, saying he was a missing man.
Mr Darwin yesterday told his solicitor, John Nixon, he was worried about his wife and was missing her.
"He is desperate to see his wife, to be reunited with her. He is anxious to know about her wellbeing. It is their wedding anniversary in 10 days. They are going to spend their wedding day apart. He is anxious for everything to be resolved. He is in good shape, bearing up," Nixon said.
His wife, who sold the family's two homes, initially claimed she was in "total shock" that her husband was still alive, but later admitted to journalists she was aware he was not dead and that he had been living next door to the family home for much of his disappearance.
Detectives in Hartlepool described Mrs Darwin as very cooperative with "a surreal investigation".
Police yesterday released a fake passport photograph allegedly used by Mr Darwin. The picture - taken from a bogus travel document he had allegedly used in the name of John Jones - shows a man with long hair, balding on top and sporting a lengthy, greying beard.
The inquiry, at one stage lightheartedly dubbed Operation Lazarus, is the biggest undertaken by the Cleveland force in geographical terms.
Det Supt Tony Hutchinson appealed for more information about where the Darwins had been in Europe and North and South America. "We need to know what they have been saying and who to," he said.
Police reopened their brief investigation into the 2002 "drowning" three months ago, because of what Hutchinson called "financial transactions".
Hutchinson said detectives had interviewed the couple's two sons, Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, who have declared themselves aghast at the news of their father's deception, which Mrs Darwin claimed had always been hidden from them.
Hutchinson said: "There is nothing whatsoever to suggest that they are anything other than victims of this case. If that is the case, they have been duped in what can only be described as a really disgraceful fashion."
guardian
