Back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin has revealed details of how he faked his own death in a memoir smuggled out of his jail cell, it was reported today.
The former prison officer conned financial institutions out of around £250,000 after vanishing in March 2002 while paddling his canoe in the North Sea near his home in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool.
He was charged last in 2007 after walking into a police station claiming amnesia. His wife had reported him missing in 2002 after he failed to return to their home and he was thought to have drowned at sea in a canoeing accident. The broken remains of his red kayak were discovered a few weeks later.
Darwin (58) and wife Anne (56) earlier this year lost appeals against their jail sentences for a for fraud they carried out by faking his death at sea.
Former teacher Mr Darwin had sought a reduction in his sentence of six years and three months, imposed on him by a judge at Teesside Crown Court last year for admitted deception charges.
His wife, a former doctor’s receptionist, was convicted of six counts of fraud and nine of money laundering after a trial.
She was sentenced to six and a half years, which she appealed against as “excessive”.
The pair were imprisoned over a swindle which deceived the police, a coroner, financial institutions and even their sons, Mark (32) and Anthony (29).
One of the features of the case was that they had committed the “grossest form of betrayal” against their “entirely innocent” sons.
The couple had a 12-home property portfolio and were struggling to make mortgage repayments when he paddled into the sea in his home-made canoe and then disappeared.