'Back-from-the-dead' canoeist ignores wife in frosty court reunion

After spending Christmas in separate prisons after their last appearance before Hartlepool Magistrates' Court in December, the couple were today remanded in custody accused of four further counts of deception.

In court, Mr Darwin occasionally looked agitated but avoided looking at his wife.

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Mr Darwin, who wore a black leather jacket, cream jumper and blue shirt, listened intently.

Mrs Darwin, who wore a blue sweatshirt, stripy T-shirt and glasses, looked nervous and stared straight ahead throughout the five-minute hearing.

They are jointly accused of obtaining almost £90,000 from pension and bereavement schemes.

Mr Darwin himself today faced a fifth charge of dishonestly obtaining £137,000 from Norwich Union Life Services.

Both were remanded in custody until January 18 by magistrates.

Each flanked by a dock officer, they both spoke only to confirm their names and ages during the brief hearing.

The couple's solicitors did not apply for bail and said their clients would not be entering pleas at this stage of the proceedings.

Last month, the couple faced the same court on deception charges and were remanded in custody.

Mr Darwin is already charged with dishonestly obtaining £25,000 and making an untrue statement to procure a passport.

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His wife is accused of dishonestly obtaining a £25,000 life insurance payment and a policy worth £137,000.

Mr Darwin disappeared after taking his canoe into the sea opposite his home in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, in March 2002.

A huge air-sea search failed to find any trace of his body, and he was pronounced dead by police and a coroner the following year.

It has since been claimed that the former teacher and prison officer was living next door to his wife at her seaside home in Seaton Carew for much of the time he was thought to have been dead.

The mystery of his disappearance started to unravel when Mr Darwin walked into a London police station on December 1 last year and announced: "I think I'm a missing person."

Days later, a photograph of Mr Darwin and his wife, a former doctor's receptionist, emerged, which appeared to show them in Panama, Central America, with a property agent.

The picture is said to have been taken in July 2006 - more than three years after Hartlepool Coroner Malcolm Donnelly recorded an open verdict on Mr Darwin's death.

Last month, detectives said the couple's two sons, Mark and Anthony Darwin, were never made aware that their father was still alive and were innocent "victims" of the charade.