More time for canoeist police
Police get 36 more hours to question 'dead canoeist' John Darwin
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Friday, 07, Dec 2007 07:52
Police have been granted a further 36 hours to question a canoeist who reappeared after being presumed dead for several years.
Hartlepool magistrates court has allowed Cleveland police to hold John Darwin, 57, in custody until 11:30 GMT tomorrow.
Earlier, the force had said they wanted to speak to Mr Darwin's wife Anne "as a matter of urgency".
The 55-year-old is understood to be flying back from Panama to, in her own words, "face the music". According to media reports she is currently in Miami, Florida.
Cleveland police are holding Mr Darwin on suspicion of fraud and it is thought Mrs Darwin is suspected of the same offence.
Mr Darwin walked into a central London police station on December 1st claiming he thought he was a missing person and was suffering from memory loss.
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.
But in several interviews given to UK tabloid newspapers this week, Mrs Darwin has apparently confessed to knowing her husband was alive.
A photograph of the couple apparently taken in Panama last year has also appeared in the British press.
When her husband reappeared Mrs Darwin initially claimed she had accepted his life insurance money in "good faith".
"Who can blame them? How can they ever forgive me for what I've done to them?" the Daily Mirror quoted her as saying.
Yesterday the couple's two sons, Anthony and Mark, said they had been the victims of a "large scam".
In a statement released through Cleveland police they said they were in an "angry and confused state of mind".
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".
"How could our mam continue to let us believe our dad had died when he was very much alive?" they asked.