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New Life.
Canoe man' John Darwin who faked his own death has extraordinary new life
Surrounded by the crystal clear waters of the Hinatuan Enchanted River, a beautiful tourist spot in the Philippines, John Darwin is enjoying a new life with his second wife.
But she needn't worry - there isn't a canoe in sight.
His new home is a ludicrously ironic reminder of his stranger than fiction story.
It may now be 17 years since he infamously “ disappeared ” with his canoe into the North Sea off Seaton Carew, County Durham, and 12 since his farcical story of fraud on the most far-fetched scale hogged headlines around the world, but it still makes for fascinating reading.
For anyone who needs a reminder, Darwin, now 68, a former teacher and prison officer, was living with first wife Anne in the seaside town when spiralling debts prompted him to come up with a wild idea.
With just a whiff of the Reggie Perrins, he decided the best way to dig himself and Anne out of their financial hole was to fake his own death at sea, and for his grieving widow to claim his life insurance.
Then, after a decent amount of time, they would begin a new life in Panama - never minding their two grown-up sons, Mark and Anthony, would forever mourn their 'dead' dad.
Incredibly, for five years, the plan came off.
In March 2002 Darwin paddled out to sea and faked his canoeing accident, sparking a massive search and rescue operation that family, friends, police and the coroner all bought hook, line and sinker.
His body was never found – only, eventually, his smashed up canoe.
Meanwhile, as Anne did her best grieving widow routine and collected £250,000 in life insurance payouts, Darwin initially hid in a next-door bedsit which the couple owned.
Incredibly, Anne helped him pull this off for a full four years with no one any the wiser.
John would don a wig and call himself Tom, a handyman, if he ever had to answer the door, and as he grew more confident went out and about with a bushy beard, even borrowing books from the local library under the alias John Jones.
Finally, Darwin came up with a plan to get a passport in the name of a dead baby and the couple moved to South America to live more openly.
The doting wife told their sons she needed to start a new life in the sun.
With everything going swimmingly, Darwin took his next bold step - returning to the UK and walking into a police station to claim he had been suffering from amnesia all this time (possibly that Harold Bishop Neighbours storyline could have been his inspiration...)
It might have worked.
Had a photo of the Darwins grinning happily in a Panama estate agents not been found on the internet, time stamped, revealing he had indeed been alive all along.
After returning to the UK, Anne was convicted of six fraud charges and nine counts of money laundering and was jailed for six-and-a-half years.
She served three-and-a-half.
Darwin admitted fraud, as well as one of falsely obtaining a passport, and was jailed for six years and three months.
He was released in 2011 after serving half his sentence.
After his release Darwin wanted to rekindle their marriage, but Anne refused.
Ultimately though, it was he who divorced her on grounds of unreasonable behaviour.
Later, Anne spoke of her husband's domineering character.
The older man, she met him when she was just 17, and he was always in charge, she claimed.
“Early on, I knew that I would be fighting a losing battle if there was anything to discuss. John always had the counter-argument so there was no point disagreeing. He always got his way,” she described.
Anne added: “I didn’t have the courage to do the right thing because I put all my trust in the man I married and could not perceive a life without him.”
John meanwhile, in memoirs smuggled out of jail with the help of a conman former fellow prisoner - naturally - claimed he faked his death because he was suicidal over his debts, and feared appearing a failure to his family.
“The thought of losing everything was more than I could bear," he said.
"Not only would I think I was a failure in the eyes of Anne but also in the eyes of my two sons, as I would have lost the family home, lost absolutely everything that Anne and I had worked for."
He added: "A suicide would be useless – the insurance company wouldn't pay out...
“Just keep going and then capsize. Job done. Another accident at sea, with a body as well. Yes, just keep paddling.”
But today, it seems those bleak days are long behind 'canoe man'.
While Anne lives a quiet life near York, and is reconciled with her sons, Darwin married second wife Mercy May, from Manila, four years ago, less than two months after they met online.
She is 23 years his junior.
Darwin isn't a man to do things by halves.
Life seems to be all fun in the sun for the pair, suggesting the old adage 'crime doesn't pay' might not quite ring true for the indomitable Darwin.
Yet it appears these days he does choose to wear a life jacket in deep water – perhaps suggesting he doesn't like sailing quite as close to the wind as he once did.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/canoe-man-john-darwin-who-faked-his-own-death-has-extraordinary-new-life/ar-BBVLXEq?ocid=spartandhp
Surrounded by the crystal clear waters of the Hinatuan Enchanted River, a beautiful tourist spot in the Philippines, John Darwin is enjoying a new life with his second wife.
But she needn't worry - there isn't a canoe in sight.
His new home is a ludicrously ironic reminder of his stranger than fiction story.
It may now be 17 years since he infamously “ disappeared ” with his canoe into the North Sea off Seaton Carew, County Durham, and 12 since his farcical story of fraud on the most far-fetched scale hogged headlines around the world, but it still makes for fascinating reading.
For anyone who needs a reminder, Darwin, now 68, a former teacher and prison officer, was living with first wife Anne in the seaside town when spiralling debts prompted him to come up with a wild idea.
With just a whiff of the Reggie Perrins, he decided the best way to dig himself and Anne out of their financial hole was to fake his own death at sea, and for his grieving widow to claim his life insurance.
Then, after a decent amount of time, they would begin a new life in Panama - never minding their two grown-up sons, Mark and Anthony, would forever mourn their 'dead' dad.
Incredibly, for five years, the plan came off.
In March 2002 Darwin paddled out to sea and faked his canoeing accident, sparking a massive search and rescue operation that family, friends, police and the coroner all bought hook, line and sinker.
His body was never found – only, eventually, his smashed up canoe.
Meanwhile, as Anne did her best grieving widow routine and collected £250,000 in life insurance payouts, Darwin initially hid in a next-door bedsit which the couple owned.
Incredibly, Anne helped him pull this off for a full four years with no one any the wiser.
John would don a wig and call himself Tom, a handyman, if he ever had to answer the door, and as he grew more confident went out and about with a bushy beard, even borrowing books from the local library under the alias John Jones.
Finally, Darwin came up with a plan to get a passport in the name of a dead baby and the couple moved to South America to live more openly.
The doting wife told their sons she needed to start a new life in the sun.
With everything going swimmingly, Darwin took his next bold step - returning to the UK and walking into a police station to claim he had been suffering from amnesia all this time (possibly that Harold Bishop Neighbours storyline could have been his inspiration...)
It might have worked.
Had a photo of the Darwins grinning happily in a Panama estate agents not been found on the internet, time stamped, revealing he had indeed been alive all along.
After returning to the UK, Anne was convicted of six fraud charges and nine counts of money laundering and was jailed for six-and-a-half years.
She served three-and-a-half.
Darwin admitted fraud, as well as one of falsely obtaining a passport, and was jailed for six years and three months.
He was released in 2011 after serving half his sentence.
After his release Darwin wanted to rekindle their marriage, but Anne refused.
Ultimately though, it was he who divorced her on grounds of unreasonable behaviour.
Later, Anne spoke of her husband's domineering character.
The older man, she met him when she was just 17, and he was always in charge, she claimed.
“Early on, I knew that I would be fighting a losing battle if there was anything to discuss. John always had the counter-argument so there was no point disagreeing. He always got his way,” she described.
Anne added: “I didn’t have the courage to do the right thing because I put all my trust in the man I married and could not perceive a life without him.”
John meanwhile, in memoirs smuggled out of jail with the help of a conman former fellow prisoner - naturally - claimed he faked his death because he was suicidal over his debts, and feared appearing a failure to his family.
“The thought of losing everything was more than I could bear," he said.
"Not only would I think I was a failure in the eyes of Anne but also in the eyes of my two sons, as I would have lost the family home, lost absolutely everything that Anne and I had worked for."
He added: "A suicide would be useless – the insurance company wouldn't pay out...
“Just keep going and then capsize. Job done. Another accident at sea, with a body as well. Yes, just keep paddling.”
But today, it seems those bleak days are long behind 'canoe man'.
While Anne lives a quiet life near York, and is reconciled with her sons, Darwin married second wife Mercy May, from Manila, four years ago, less than two months after they met online.
She is 23 years his junior.
Darwin isn't a man to do things by halves.
Life seems to be all fun in the sun for the pair, suggesting the old adage 'crime doesn't pay' might not quite ring true for the indomitable Darwin.
Yet it appears these days he does choose to wear a life jacket in deep water – perhaps suggesting he doesn't like sailing quite as close to the wind as he once did.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/canoe-man-john-darwin-who-faked-his-own-death-has-extraordinary-new-life/ar-BBVLXEq?ocid=spartandhp