"Dead" Brit Charged In Insurance Fraud

Man Lived With Wife For Years After Being Declared Dead, Used Secret Apt. To Escape Detection

(CBS/AP)  John Darwin, who reappeared five years after his apparent death at sea, has been charged with life insurance fraud and lying to get a false passport, British police said Saturday.

Declared officially dead after an apparent 2002 canoeing accident, Darwin turned himself in at a police station last week, claiming to have suffered amnesia. He is alleged to have masterminded a fraud to clear his family's debts.

Police said he will appear before a court Monday.

Detective Sgt. Iain Henderson said officers want to question Darwin's wife Anne. She is thought be in Miami, Fla., after leaving her home in Panama.

"Clearly authorities will be making inquiries to speak to her," he told reporters.

The bizarre case of a canoeist thought to have drowned five years ago but who turned up last week very much alive continues to baffle and amaze the British, as more revelations come from the wife who claimed the life insurance.

According to CBS News correspondent Larry Miller, Anne Darwin claimed she believed husband John drowned five years ago, but then he showed up, convincing her to keep the scam going.

John Darwin, now 57, continued to live in the same house with his wife in the northeastern city of Hartlepool. When guests came to the house, including the couple's grown children, Darwin would escape through a secret passage into the adjoining house (which the couple also owned), where he stayed in an efficiency apartment.

A former science teacher turned prison guard, Darwin was believed to have died in a canoe accident in the North Sea in 2002. But he appeared at a police station in London last Saturday claiming to have suffered amnesia.

Anne Darwin said she felt guilty for lying to her sons.

"I have been living my life as a lie, constantly looking over my shoulder, realizing something like this could happen at some stage," the 55-year-old Mrs. Darwin was quoted as telling The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail. "I was never relaxed - always on edge and knowing the truth could come out at any time."

The Mirror reported Darwin had been traveling on a fake passport under the name John Jones, and that his wife transferred money from her bank account in 2005 to help him buy a yacht in Gibraltar, but the sale fell through.

In comments published in newspapers Friday, Mrs. Darwin was quoted as saying it was her husband's idea to move to Panama and that he was there when she arrived six weeks ago.

Miller reports that the couple purchased an apartment and property in Panama where they planned to set up a business selling canoe treks.

Miller said Darwin, while hiding out, would wear disguises and even pretend to limp.

But in Panama, a photograph taken of the couple and posted on a Web site would prove the man who "died" was very much alive.

Mrs. Darwin says she lied to her children for years. The couple's sons said Thursday they want no further contact with their parents.

"Who can blame them?" Mrs. Darwin was quoted as telling British tabloids. "I lied to them - my own sons. What sort of mother am I?"

[gmond]

A picture is worth a thousand words:
www.poconocommunitynews.com

Posted by helper211 at 03:46 PM : Dec 08, 2007

Does Murdoch own that site?

[cdfoxtrot]

I''''m sure that it''''s big news in England, with all of their daily scummy news that is spearheaded by Rupert Murdoch.

Posted by george2221

In terms of newspapers, there are some very fine broadsheets in the UK that are the opposite of the mass market non-news tabloid lot. In the TV world, they fare far better than us, with BBC and its competitors, including one owned by Murdoch (Sky News) which compares very well with anything we see in the US. We''re stuck with Faux News which we all know is a propaganda mouthpiece for the extreme right-wing of the (already right-wing) Repigligan Party. CNN is busy racing to the bottom to match Faux News, putting garbage like "News to Me" on in place of actual news.
Meanwhile, our cable operators won''t let us see non-US news channels, like BBC World or Al Jazeera. There''s no room for them, but there is plenty of room for dozens of sports and religious channels. News just isn''t important -- which is why Americans are so poorly informed about world events and why the US keeps getting into trouble around the globe.

[cdfoxtrot]

He should have stayed in the US and become a politician. The "I don''t recall" response to any troubling question seems to get them all out of trouble (e.g. the current moron-in-chief, Ronnie (the past moron-in-chief), Condi-Sleeza, Ollie, etc.).

[gmond]

there is a Darwin Award joke in here somewhere

[nirak2-2009]

What kind of mother are you?
Not a mother at all! Just a crook like your husband and I hope the sons will never speak to either one of you.

[excoachken]

To thgdriver: To compare any real news to Fox is silly. Fox can''t even pretend to be anything more than weak satire. Like the Daily Show, it is meant to be a joke (Bill O''Really giving lessons on morality after writing pornographic novel and sexually harassing underlings, Ann "Adams Apple" Coulter questioning a politician''s sexuality)etc. If you or anyone else takes their hyperbole seriously, then you become the joke!

[thgdriver]

Murdoch''''s scummy FOX news in the United States isn''''t doing so bad. People, especially lowlifes, just tend to like lies, fabrications and manipulations.

Posted by george2221

I don''t understand your post, you hammer and damm fox and were not on Fox, this is CBS. Yesterday CBS did the same thing with the "I would vote for Hillary" "tabloid" story.

[impetus51]

These two will have a long and illustrious career in politics, no matter the country.

[mitywhity]

This will now spark the theory of human devolution

[beehive21-2009]

What,lowlife,can you imagine your father doing that for $$ some role model, and we wonder why kids are deviate,today ,wonder if they ''ll go to the next, funeral.

[rational_1]

Yup, what sort of mother are you?

All this for money!!

Pathetic!

[excoachken]

What will DARWIN evolve into now?