PAPHOS, Cyprus (AP) — A Cyprus court on Friday found a British man who killed his ailing wife in their home guilty of manslaughter, saying that the prosecution didn’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that the 76-year-old man committed premeditated murder.
In a unanimous decision, the three-judge bench said that David Hunter’s decision to suffocate his 74-year-old wife Janice as she was sitting in a recliner was a spur-of-the-moment decision because he snapped as he could no longer stand her weeping in pain.
The court accepted witness testimony that Janice feared her blood ailment would develop into full-blown leukemia and had repeatedly pleaded with her husband to take her life because she didn’t want to share the fate of her sister who died of the disease.
Hunter attempted to take his own life by consuming a large amount of pills after “closing his hands over his wife’s mouth and nose,” the court heard, but medical staff saved his life.
The court cited expert testimony that Janice Hunter suffered from a blood ailment that “to a large degree” could turn into leukemia, although there was no proof that she had indeed developed the cancer.
But the court said both husband and wife believed that Janice would develop it because of her sister’s fate. The court will reconvene Jul. 27 for mitigation before passing sentence.
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