Filenews 20 December 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
The prosecution essentially disputes the position of the 74-year-old Briton who a year ago killed his 75-year-old wife at their home in Tremithousa, Paphos, saying they had agreed to do so in order to relieve the woman of the torment due to her illness. This emerged from today's, fourth in a row start to the trial, while it was expected that the change of indictment would be agreed on the basis of the previous three and that instead of premeditated murder, the 74-year-old would be charged with manslaughter.
However, during today's proceedings, the prosecution announced that it does not consider the agreement between the 74-year-old and his wife to be a fact since, as pointed out in court, this could set a judicial precedent for future crimes. It is also suggested that the 74-year-old may have killed his wife out of pity and compassion because she was suffering from her long illness, but it is not presumed that she was in agreement, since neither a written note was left confirming this, nor did she inform their daughter in England about it.
The defendant's defence lawyers expressed disappointment at this position and argued that on the merits the prosecution accepts one part of the defendant's admission and rejects the rest.
The Assize Court made it clear after these developments that the hearing would continue anyway, which was done with the first prosecution witness being the president of the community of Tremithousa, Christofis Petrou, who said that he is the owner of the house where the British couple lived. The witness said that on several occasions the 74-year-old complained that she was tired of her state of health.
The Assize Court then set the trial to continue for Thursday, while ordering that the defendant remain in custody.
