Police will arrest the wife of the canoeist who reappeared five years after he was presumed drowned when she returns to Britain from Central America, media reports said yesterday.
Anne Darwin, 55, is reportedly flying home from Panama after telling reporters that she has been "living a lie" and fears her children will never forgive her.
Her husband John Darwin was arrested this week on suspicion of fraud after walking into a London police station and telling officers he believed they might be looking for him.
Darwin, 57, vanished in March 2002 from his home in northeast England. Since reappearing, the former prison officer's family says he has no memory of events since 2000.
In an interview in yesterday's Daily Mirror, his wife said: "I have been living my life as a lie, constantly looking over my shoulder. What have I done? I hate lying, I'm not a dishonest person. I really am so sorry."
She apologized to her sons, Mark and Anthony, after they said they felt they had been the victims of "a large scam."
"Who can blame them? How can they ever forgive me for what I've done?" she said.
Police had until noon yesterday to question John Darwin before they must apply to a court for a further extension, a Cleveland Police spokesman said.
British media said she sold her home and left Britain for Central America with ?450,000 (US$915,000) shortly before her husband's shock reappearance.
Earlier this week, the Mirror published a photo which apparently showed her with her "dead" husband in a Panama apartment last year.
During the day on Thursday the couple's sons, Anthony and Mark, who both left their jobs in recent months, issued a joint statement saying they were "astonished" that their mother could have let them believe their father had died. They said they had been the victims of a "large scam."
"If the papers' allegations of a confession from our mam are true then we very much feel that we have been the victims in a large scam. How could our mam continue to let us believe our dad had died when he was very much alive?" the statement said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was