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| Canoeist's wife quizzed in court | Canoeist's wife quizzed in court |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| The wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin has entered the witness box to give evidence in her defence. | The wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin has entered the witness box to give evidence in her defence. |
| Anne Darwin's legal team argue that she was the victim of "marital coercion" by her husband, who forced her to go along with a plan to fake his death. | |
| The jury has heard about a "complicated plot" by the couple to fraudulently claim £250,000 in pension and insurance funds and start a new life. | |
| The 56-year-old denies deception and money-laundering charges. | The 56-year-old denies deception and money-laundering charges. |
| Mr Darwin has admitted deception and will be sentenced later. | Mr Darwin has admitted deception and will be sentenced later. |
| The prosecution alleges Anne Darwin put on a "great act" for five-and-a-half years in order to convince police and family members that her husband was dead. | |
| Earlier this week, she heard sons Mark and Anthony describe how she had "betrayed" them, leaving them to think their father was dead while she planned a new life with him in Panama. | |
| And on Wednesday an e-mail from Mrs Darwin asking her husband not to leave her, hours before he handed himself in to UK police, was read in court. | |
| John Darwin vanished from the sea close to his home near Hartlepool in March 2002 and the wreckage of his canoe washed up on a beach weeks later. | |
| He walked into a police station in December last year, claiming to be suffering from amnesia. |