He forced me to do it - canoe man's wife

9:36am Tuesday 15th July 2008

THE wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin has gone on trial accused of playing "an equal and vital role" in a plot to cash in valuable insurance and pension policies.

Anne Darwin accepts she was involved in the plan to fake the drowning of her husband John so they could collect more than £250,000 at a time they were in dire financial trouble.

The 56-year-old doctors' receptionist has also admitted picking him up from the waters' edge and driving him away so he could lie low until the search for him was over.

But Mrs Darwin is maintaining her pleas of not guilty to a total of 15 charges - six allegations of fraud and nine offences described by the prosecution as "money laundering".

The jury at Teesside Crown Court was told yesterday by Andrew Robertson, QC, prosecuting, that they may wonder why there is a trial when Mrs Darwin has admitted her involvement.

Mr Robertson said the only issue in the case was whether Mrs Darwin acted under the influence of her 58-year-old husband or was a willing participant in the deception.

He told the jury that the mother-of-two is using the unusual defence of "marital coercion" and, unlike in every other criminal case, will have to prove her defence.

Mr Robertson said it is almost always up to the prosecution to prove its case against a defendant, but in this trial she has to show beyond reasonable doubt that she acted under duress.

"A wife has a defence to charges such as this if she is able to prove to you, firstly, that that particular offence was committed in the presence of her husband, and, secondly, under the coercion of her husband," he added.

"That's a somewhat old-fashioned word, but it means pressure from her husband of some sort to such an extent that her own will was overborne - that she was impelled to act in a way against her own will."

Mr Robertson showed the jury the now-infamous photograph of Mr and Mrs Darwin smiling with a property agent in Panama, and told them: "You will have to consider whether she was a woman whose own will had been overborne by her husband, or whether in fact that picture is indicative of a woman who was very happy at the prospects of enjoying the fruits of this fraud."

Mr Robertson added: "The initial idea may well have been John Darwin's rather than Anne's, but in the Crown's submission it was a scheme in which Anne Darwin not only played an equal and vital role - but it was a role she played with superb aplomb.

"If she kept her nerve, which she coolly did, then the rewards were going to be considerable, which they were, sufficient not just to discharge the debts, but as events turned out, to finance a potentially idyllic life together."

The jury was told that the Darwins were close to bankruptcy and the faked death was just days after they were told by their bank that their charges were to rise sharply.

Mr Robertson said Mrs Darwin, of Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, was so convincing in her role as the grieving widow that she tricked everyone - including her two sons.

The trial continues.

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