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Canoe wife 'wanted to keep family together' with lies
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent18.07.08
Anne Darwin today claimed she had no idea she was breaking the law by pretending her husband was dead to claim insurance money.
The 56-year-old admitted in court that her actions entailed lying to the world but claimed that she did not think it was fraud.
She also told a jury she did not pretend her husband had disappeared while canoeing off Hartlepool to get the £250,000 payout.
Instead, she continued to insist that she had had no choice because of pressure from 57-year-old John Darwin.
Mrs Darwin, of Seaton Carew near Hartlepool, broke down in tears as she was questioned about the pain she had caused sons Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29.
She was giving evidence for a second day at her trial at Teesside crown court where she denies 15 charges of deception and money laundering.
Mrs Darwin says she only agreed to claim the £250,000 payout after Darwin's staged disappearance at sea because of "marital coercion".
Concerning the legality of her actions, she said: "I didn't understand it to be fraud at the time."
Questioned by Andrew Robertson QC, prosecuting, she said she had lied to her sons for more than five years.
The QC demanded: "There can only be one explanation for it, is it that you wanted the money?"
In tears, Mrs Darwin replied: "I didn't want the money. Money was not important to me."
Continuing to blame her husband for forcing her to take part in the fraud, she insisted that his " overbearing behaviour" made her do things against her will throughout their married life.
Mr Robertson asked: "If John had said to you, 'Anne, I want you to go and jump off a cliff ', you would, because John told you to, even if you didn't want to because he had overborne your will?"
Tersely she hit back: "I think that's a very unfair comparison. You were not there to see how I lived." Mr Robertson continued: "When you saw what you were saying to your own sons why didn't you, their mother, take them to one side and say, 'I cannot bear seeing you like this, the truth is that he is not dead.
"'We are in dire financial circumstances and he's had this mad idea to try to claim some money from the insurance companies.' Why didn't you bring their pain to an end?"
Mrs Darwin replied: "Because I felt trapped." Mr Robertson said: "You knew when you went to pick him up to make his getaway that you were going to hurt your children in the most acute way imaginable."
Mrs Darwin: "I knew that. I wasn't looking forward to it."
Asked if she thought bankruptcy was such a "horrific prospect", Mrs Darwin replied that she wanted to "keep her family together".
She told the court: " I wanted John to go bankrupt. It was my suggestion. He wouldn't."
Mr Robertson then said that taking part in the faked death would " crucify your children". Mrs Darwin replied: "As I said before, I had no choice." The case continues.
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