Darwin 'begged wife to let him come home'

The wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin told police he cried and begged her to let him come home after he staged his death, a court heard today.

However, Anne Darwin told detectives investigating her role in a £250,000 (€314,351) fraud that she was minded to leave him where he was hiding.

The jury at Teesside Crown Court also heard how Darwin sent his wife a loving message via police on Christmas Eve after both had been arrested and he was on remand in Durham jail.

An officer told the former doctors’ receptionist: “He asked we tell you that he loves you and said sorry for the mess he has got you into.”

The 56-year-old mother-of-two denies six counts of deception and nine money laundering charges linked to insurance payments received after her husband’s disappearance from the seafront at Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, in March 2002.