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Faking death at sea nearly killed me, says Mr Canoe
18.08.09
Back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin almost drowned on the night he faked his own death, he claims in his prison memoirs.
The 59-year-old, who plotted with wife Anne to collect on his £250,000 life insurance policy, has written about the scam in a 33,000-word manuscript he has smuggled out of jail.
In the diaries, published in The Sun, he describes paddling out to sea at Seaton Carew and fighting a suicidal urge to capsize his red kayak.He then ended up too far from the safety of the coast and had to battle against North Sea currents and crashing waves to get back to the shore.
His wife met him and drove him to Durham railway station where he travelled to Carlisle in Cumbria, spent a night in a bed and breakfast and three weeks of “utter misery” in a tent.
The fraudster — who claims he fell victim to a “temporary madness” —said: “My life on the run had begun.”
Darwin, who left his two sons Mark and Anthony believing he was dead for five years, said he had prepared an “on the run kit” in a plastic bag comprising “two T-shirts, jumper, socks, pants, two pairs of trainers, money belt with cash, torch, matches, and a pair of brown tinted sunglasses.” He also took a life jacket.
The day after he disappeared he bought a rucksack, a tent, an inflatable mattress and an “old man disguise” which consisted of a flat cap, a sheepskin coat and a pair of glasses from an Oxfam shop. He also adopted a fake limp and carried a walking stick.
He survived by eating Mars bars and pies and drinking cola. He said he had missed his wife so much in the first few weeks that he carved a large heart into a tree in his isolated campsite with the words “John and Anne” inside it.
