John Darwin disappearance case

John Darwin disappearance case
Born	(1950-08-14) 14 August 1950
Occupation(s)	Former teacher and prison officer
Criminal status	Imprisoned
Spouse	Anne Darwin (née Stephenson)
Children	Mark Darwin, Anthony Darwin
Criminal charge	Fraud

The John Darwin disappearance case is an investigation into the faked death of British former teacher and prison officer John Darwin, who turned up alive in December 2007, five years after he was thought to have died in a canoeing accident.

John Darwin was arrested and charged with fraudulently obtaining a passport, and claiming money by deception. His wife—who was also arrested and charged, having claimed the money on his life insurance—alleged he had been secretly living in their house and the house next door, and that the couple had planned to set up a hotel for canoeing holidays in Panama. On 23 July 2008 John and Anne Darwin were each sentenced to over six years imprisonment.

The events were dramatised in the BBC Four television drama Canoe Man.

Biography

John Darwin was born on 14 August 1950, in Hartlepool, County Durham. He attended St. Francis Grammar School and De La Salle College, Manchester where he studied biology and chemistry. On 22 December 1973, John Darwin married Anne Stephenson at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, in Blackhall. Darwin then taught science and mathematics at Derwentside for 18 years before leaving to join Barclays Bank. He later became a prison officer. He and his wife Anne Darwin, a doctor's receptionist, also ran a business renting bedsits in County Durham with 12 houses. They ran into debt after purchasing two houses in Seaton Carew in December 2000. The debts, amounting to "tens of thousands of pounds", caused Darwin to talk about faking his own death to claim the insurance by early 2002.

The disappearance

John Darwin was seen paddling out to sea in his canoe on 21 March 2002, at Seaton Carew, in Hartlepool. Later the same day, he was reported as "missing" after failing to report to work. A large-scale sea search took place, during which 62 square miles (160 km²) of coastline were searched. There was no sign of Darwin, though a double-ended paddle was retrieved from the sea near North Gare, Seaton Carew, the following day. Later on 22 March 2002, the wreckage of John Darwin's canoe was found.

The missing years

During the years that Darwin was presumed dead, he lived for some time in a bedsit next door to the family home; he then moved back in with his wife Anne in February 2003. A death certificate was issued the following month, stating that John Darwin "probably encountered difficulties, as a result of which he died". This allowed his wife to claim on his life insurance; it is alleged that £25,000 was paid out from Unat Direct Insurance Management Limited (part of the AIG insurance group) as well as a much larger amount which paid off the £130,000 mortgage." Sometime that year, a tenant of the block of bedsit flats that the Darwins owned, Lee Wadrop, recognised Darwin and asked him "Aren't you supposed to be dead?" to which Darwin replied "Don't tell anyone about this". Wadrop later said that he had not told the police because he "did not want to get involved".

In 2004, the Darwins decided to move abroad, considering Australia, Canada, Cyprus and the Falkland Islands. John Darwin applied for, and obtained a passport using the false name "John Jones," but using his true home address. In November 2004, the couple visited Cyprus to investigate buying property there.

In May 2005, an angler named Matt Autie claimed to have met John Darwin - who was going under the name "John Williams" - at a lake near Penzance, Cornwall. When back at home, Mr. Darwin is reported to have spent most of his time on the Internet where he encountered a woman from Kansas in the United States whom he flew out to meet. By November, Darwin was back in the UK and flew from Newcastle to Gibraltar, and then travelled to El Puerto de Santa María to view a £45,000 42 ft catamaran which he was considering buying from boat dealer Robert Hopkin.

On 9 March 2006, Darwin is reported to have signed a planning objection to a neighbour's building work using a false name. Darwin and his wife began to consider Panama as a possible destination. The couple flew from Newcastle to Panama on 14 July 2006, where they were photographed by a Panamanian property agent. In February 2007, they spent a further week in Panama. Newspapers from February 2007 were later found in the boarded-up gap between the Darwins' house and the bedsit where Darwin had hidden. In March 2007, the couple returned to Panama and formed a company called Jaguar Properties in order to buy a two -bedroom apartment in El Dorado for £50,000. The bedsit house next to the family home was sold under the name of the Darwin's son, Mark; the home had been transferred to Mark Darwin in 2006. The proceeds from the sale were then transferred to Panama.

The following month, Anne Darwin returned to the UK to sell her home while John Darwin remained in Panama. In May 2007, the couple purchased a £200,000 tropical estate in the village of Escobal, Colón, Panama near the Panama Canal with the intention of building a hotel from where canoeing holidays could be run. Anne Darwin visited Panama again in July 2007, staying for six weeks. A police investigation was then started in September when a colleague of Anne Darwin became suspicious upon overhearing a phone conversation between the couple. The Darwin family home was sold for £295,000 in October 2007 and Anne Darwin subsequently left for Panama. In the third week of November, the couple holidayed in Costa Rica before returning to Panama. On 30 November 2007, Mrs Darwin bought an airline ticket for her husband to England because "he was missing his sons". On the same day, their son Mark left his property firm after working his notice period.

Return and arrest

On 1 December 2007, Darwin walked into West End Central police station in London, claiming to have no memory of the past five years. His wife Anne - who had sold up her properties in England and moved to Panama three months before his re-appearance - expressed surprise, joy and elation at the return of her missing husband.

The story deepened on 5 December 2007, when the Daily Mirror published a photo of John and Anne Darwin, which was taken in Panama in 2006. Anne reportedly confirmed that the photograph was of John, saying "Yes, that's him. My sons will never forgive me". The photograph had been discovered when a member of the public typed the words "John", "Anne" and "Panama" into Google Images. The photo was featured on the website movetopanama.com and brought to the attention of the Daily Mirror and Cleveland Police. The police then arrested Darwin at the house of his son Anthony in Basingstoke.

Police had begun inquiries into the financial circumstances of the case three months before Darwin's reappearance, following the report made by one of Anne Darwin's colleagues. Mrs. Darwin was known to have claimed on her husband's life insurance and then emigrated to Panama, so the possibility that she knew him to be alive suggested an irregularity.

John Darwin's two sons initially expressed elation at the return of their father but, as the story unfolded, they issued a joint statement stating they felt they had been victims of a scam, and implying that they wished to have no further contact with their parents. Both sons were reported to have changed their jobs prior to their father's re-appearance. On 6 December, one of John Darwin's sons allegedly disappeared after clearing out his North London flat and leaving a notebook reportedly containing coded messages for his girlfriend, as well as directions for her to get to London City Airport. Police emphasised that he was not suspected of any crime.

John Darwin had been using the name "John Jones" in a false passport and other documentation. Police examined the passport in order to piece together Darwin's movements in the previous five years; it reportedly showed several trips to Panama. Darwin used the identity of a deceased baby to obtain a false passport; the infant, John Jones, was born in Sunderland, County Durham in March 1950 but died a few weeks later. This technique featured in the 1971 novel The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth.

On 8 December, the Daily Mail quoted Anne Darwin as saying that, although she initially thought her husband was dead, he turned up at their home in 2003 and lived there secretly, and in an adjacent bedsit that she owned, for about three years. He entered the home from the bedsit through a secret hole in the wall; the hole was hidden behind a wardrobe with a false back. The article stated that, two months after he had moved back in with Anne, she was persuaded to attend an inquest into his death so she could claim the life insurance. John was pronounced dead, and the life insurance company paid only half of the £50,000 policy total because no body had been found. Anne said he had faked his death to escape financial difficulties arising from properties they owned. She claimed that he had decided to return publicly because he missed his sons, who had not been aware he was still alive. Later that day Darwin was charged with obtaining life insurance money by deception and making an untrue statement to obtain a passport.

On 9 December, Anne Darwin was arrested at Manchester Airport upon returning to the UK. She was detained in connection with allegations of fraud. She appeared in court on 11 December in Hartlepool to face two charges of fraud - obtaining £25,000 and £137,000 by deception. She remained in custody until 14 December.

Darwin appeared at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court on 10 December, where he was also remanded in custody until 14 December.

On 14 December, Anne and John Darwin appeared separately before Hartlepool Magistrates' Court and they both were remanded in custody to appear again on 11 January 2008.

On 9 January 2008, both John and Anne Darwin returned to Hartlepool Magistrates' court to face further charges of deception. John faced an additional charge of obtaining £137,000 by deception (the same charge his wife was already facing) in addition to the existing life insurance charge against both of them for £25,000 and John's separate charge of obtaining a passport by deception. They were then both charged together from obtaining more money from a teachers' pension scheme (two separate amounts of £25,186 and £58,845), plus obtaining money from the Department for Work and Pensions (two separate amounts of £2,000 and £2,273). They were remanded in custody once more to appear in court again on 18 January 2008.

On 18 January, they each appeared separately at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court by video-link and were remanded in custody until 15 February, when they faced committal to Crown Court.

On 13 March, John Darwin admitted seven charges of obtaining cash by deception and a passport offence at Leeds Crown Court. He denied nine charges of using criminal property; these charges will remain on file, according to prosecutors. Anne Darwin denied six charges of deception and nine of using criminal property.

Sentencing

On 23 July 2008, John Darwin and Anne Darwin were both convicted of fraud. John Darwin faced an additional charge relating to his fake passport and was sentenced to six years and three months in prison. Anne Darwin, who was described by the police as a compulsive liar, was sentenced to six years and six months. Both appealed against their sentences and on 27 March 2009, both appeals were denied by the Court of Appeals.

The Crown Prosecution Service has vowed that all profits from the "callous and calculated" fraud committed by the couple will be confiscated.

In popular culture

• The 2009 novel by Adrian Gere Return from the Dead was inspired by the case.
• The case is referred to in the 2009 novel 'Meltdown' by Ben Elton, in which the hero appears to consider 'doing a Canoe Man' to escape his financial problems.
• The case is referenced as a running joke in the BBC current affairs satire quiz show Mock The Week.
• A 2010 storyline for the soap opera Coronation Street saw the character Joe McIntyre attempt the same thing
• A dramatisaton of Darwin's story titled Canoe Man was made for BBC4 in 2010. The film starred Bernard Hill and Saskia Reeves as John and Anne Darwin respectively.
• The case is referred to in a song by the alternative folkpop band 6 Day Riot called 'O Those Kids'.

See also

• List of pseudocides