The case has stunned Teesside Crown Court when it was alleged that the disappearance of the estranged father and husband was only concocted to claim the princely sum of £250,000. The man had gone missing after his abandoned canoe was found close to his home in Hartlepool, north east of England.
His 56 year old wife, Anne Darwin, was in on the act and kept quiet about the fraud. She has denied her charges of financial and property deception in the bizarre case.
The court then heard in fully the transcripts of the conversations and interviews between the authorities and
Mrs Darwin after the couple’s arrest last year.
In her initial interview she had told police how he had begged to return home and she had refused to let him. Both sons have been recently reunited with their parents in court this week after refusing to talk to their mum and dad.
Mrs Darwin had told police,
"I still had family staying with me. He was finding it hard. He was getting desperate. He phoned me and gave me directions to where he was. I wanted to leave him there. I didn't want to go and pick him up, but I couldn't leave him. At one point, he was literally crying on the telephone. I couldn't see him hurt."
Mr Darwin said in court this week how he had begged his wife to let him come home, yet she repeatedly refused his return
He had been gone since 2002.
