Where John Darwin is now – canoe man almost really died and funded by young new wife

John Darwin actually did not die in a canoe accident – and now lives a drastically totally different life hundreds of miles away from the scene of his astonishing crime.

The 71-year-old fraudster faked his personal demise again in 2002 in a dishonest plot with ex-wife Anne Darwin, who performed the grieving widow and helped him acquire his £250,000 life insurance coverage coverage.

The previous couple, who got here up with the scheme after discovering themselves in crippling debt, managed to drag it off for 5 years till John ‘rose from the useless’ and their lies had been lastly uncovered by a easy {photograph}.

They’ve since divorced and John is now living in Southeast Asia with a a lot youthful new spouse, who’s considerably sarcastically named Mercy, and he nonetheless receives a UK state pension.

The 34C Pacific warmth of the Philippines is a far cry from the chilly Seaton Carew seashore in County Durham the place John faked his personal demise by paddling out to sea in his canoe.

So how did John managed to faux his personal demise and what’s his life like now?

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John, a former trainer and jail officer, determined that the easiest way to dig himself out of a monetary gap was together with his sham demise.

In March 2002, he was seen paddling out from Seaton Carew seashore close to Hartlepool and faked a canoeing accident, which sparked a large search and rescue operation when Anne reported him lacking.

She acted as a grieving widow, mendacity to the police in addition to their household and associates, together with their two sons, who had been satisfied their dad was useless when his smashed up canoe was discovered.

Though John later admitted that he did really come near dropping his life for actual whereas trying the hoax.

In his unpublished memoir, seen by the Mirror, he wrote: “I began to paddle once more, heading in the direction of the pier which I had noticed a couple of minutes earlier. It then struck me that I couldn’t see the South Gare [breakwater at the mouth of the River Tees].

“I’d really paddled out a lot, a lot additional than I meant. To my whole horror, I realised I may have been swept away and died. I had practically completed it with out which means to.”

Whereas Anne collected £250,000 in life insurance coverage payouts, her husband initially hid in a bedsit which the coupled owned subsequent door to the household dwelling.

They made a door behind a wardrobe into Anne’s bed room and John even grew a bushy beard as a disguise so he may boldly make journeys into city.

For years the couple used their ill-gotten positive factors to fly world wide in a bid to begin a brand new life, finally buying a £200,000 tropical property in a village in Panama in Could 2007.

Following a change in Panama’s visa legal guidelines, John realised he would want papers from the police so he got here dwelling and gave them his actual title – claiming he had been affected by amnesia.

However the pair had been rumbled by {a photograph} obtained by the Mirror, which confirmed them in an property agent’s workplace and ran with the headline ‘Canoe’s this in Panama?’.

John was sentenced to 6 years and three months in jail for admitting deception by faking his personal demise, whereas Anne obtained six-and-a-half years behind bars for fraud.

He was launched in 2011 after serving half his sentence and needed to rekindle his marriage, however when Anne refused he divorced her on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour.

Two years after being launched, John broke the phrases of his parole in to see a younger Ukrainian girl he had met on a overseas brides web site for ladies in search of a wealthy husband.

He informed her that lots of of girls needed to satisfy him and that he obtained 240 messages from admirers in at some point, however she by no means needed to see him once more after their first date.

In 2015, John married Filipina bride Mercidita, in any other case generally known as Mercy, who’s 23 years his junior and has companies together with a garments stall in an enormous indoor market.

His new life is a far cry from the one he dreamed of because the swindler helps to flog his market dealer spouse’s £4.35 a time lingerie and T-shirts.

In 2016, his landlady stated John spent most of his time locked away in his room as a result of he was allergic to the dust and mud on the earth’s most densely populated capital.

Final yr it was reported that the couple moved out of crowded capital Manila to a brand new dwelling round half-hour away and it’s believed they let the property subsequent door.

John nonetheless receives a UK state pension of round £134 every week and Mercy Could stated: “I’ve a brand new enterprise. I’ve had it for 3 years now. Increase. Getting cash.”

In weird scenes final month, John’s spouse claimed he was “on his approach” to battle towards the Russians in Ukraine.

Regardless of being in his seventies, John was supposedly going to take up arms and do battle with the Vladimir Putin’s forces, in accordance with Mercy.

When requested concerning the hazard, she added: “Sure, harmful for the Russian when he shoot them (sic).

“He may have a bullet proof vest and good life insurance coverage, good for me.”

Most lately, a scruffy-looking John was noticed on a procuring journey within the Philippines sunshine at a retailer sarcastically named WILCON.

John refused to reply questions as he hopped right into a £25,000 SUV and sped away, however spouse Mercy later spoke about his plan to money in as soon as once more with one other tell-all e-book.

Mercy defined: “The e-book’s about his life, however it’s not but completed. It’s a must to wait.”

Whereas a buddy stated: “John and Mercy are actually blissful collectively. He appears like he’s been given a second probability at life and he’s grabbing it with each palms.”

Mercy is offended The Thief, His Spouse and the Canoe has been made with out her husband’s permission, however the present’s author says he refused to cooperate with them.

The sequence was impressed by a e-book by former Day by day Mirror journalist David Leigh, who discovered Anne in Panama after John returned to the UK in 2007.

John will likely be performed by Hollywood actor Eddie Marsan, who says the conman lacked empathy and had “delusions of grandeur”.

“In a narcissistic approach, he thought he was smarter than everybody else,” says Eddie. “That’s why he had the cohones to do that. He thought he may outsmart everybody else.

“He noticed different folks as merely two-dimensional and thought he was the one three-dimensional individual on the earth. However he underestimated folks’s means to see by way of him.”

The actor describes the person he’s portraying as a “fantasist” who has the identical type of poisonous masculinity that’s sadly fairly widespread in immediately’s society.

Requested what he would say to John in the event that they met, Eddie replies: “I might say, ‘What had been you pondering? That was loopy!’ However I do not know if I might like to satisfy him.

“He’s in all probability hacked off that it’s not Brad Pitt enjoying him. When he heard it was me, he in all probability thought, ‘nice. Thanks loads!’.”

In tonight’s first episode, viewers will get to satisfy John and Anne, who we immediately uncover are a pair suffering from debt.

Dealing with chapter, John decides to faux his personal demise utilizing his canoe, a lot to the horror of his spouse, who consoles their sons whereas he goes into hiding.

Author Chris Lang describes John as a somebody who’s “fairly charismatic and humorous”, however provides that he has “completely no conscience” or sense of how his actions can be perceived.

“Like many narcissists, he was additionally determined to seem extra profitable than he was, which finally was the reason for his downfall,” explains Chris.

“John had a Vary Rover with personalised plates which shouted out to the world, ‘take a look at me, take a look at how properly I’m doing,’ however in fact, he had catastrophically overreached himself.

“This was a person who earned a comparatively modest wage as a jail officer(she was a GP’s receptionist) however who had mortgages on practically 20 properties, none of which he may service. His downfall was grimly inevitable.”

Neither John nor Anne opted to cooperated with the filmmakers when approached concerning the sequence, however Chris stated there was a lot materials within the public area they did not really feel like they had been lacking something.

He provides: “Anne had written her personal e-book and felt she didn’t have something extra to say. John did not cooperate both. He lives within the Philippines and is remarried now. But it surely’s nonetheless a really first-hand account.”

*The Thief, His Spouse and the C anoe is on ITV at 9pm from Easter Sunday to Wednesday twentieth April

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