'Dead' canoeist sons 'betrayed'
Sons of John Darwin say they are the victims of a "large scam"
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Thursday, 06, Dec 2007 08:51
The sons of a canoeist who was presumed dead for several years claim they have been the victims of a "large scam".
John Darwin, 57, walked into a London police station this weekend claiming he thought he was a missing person.
He disappeared on March 21st 2002 after apparently going canoeing. His kayak was discovered on a Hartlepool beach on May 7th that year and an inquest delivered an open verdict.
Earlier today his wife Anne admitted she knew her husband was alive after pictures of the couple in Panama appeared in the British press.
Mrs Darwin's comments to the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror come after she previously insisted she had accepted life insurance money in "good faith".
She is now planning to leave Panama and return to the UK "to face the music".
"I will have to go back [to Britain] because I won't have any life here. My family will be absolutely devastated by all this. My sons knew nothing. They thought he was dead," Mrs Darwin told the Daily Mail.
"They thought they had just got their dad back and now he's been whisked away. Now they are going to hate me.
"It looks as if I am going to be left without a husband, a home or a family now."
In a statement released through Cleveland police, the couple's two sons said they were in an "angry and confused state of mind".
Anthony and Mark Darwin claimed they had gone through a "rollercoaster of emotion" since their father reappeared on Saturday night.
They said that they had been led "from the height of elation at finding him to be alive to the depths of despair at the recent stories of fraud and these latest pictures".
The sons added that they had not spoken to either their father or mother since the newspaper reports and claimed they wanted "no further contact with their parents".
Mr Darwin is due to be questioned by police on suspicion of fraud after being declared fit for interview.