Anne Darwin to take the stand today

10:47am Thursday 17th July 2008

THE wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin is today due to tell her much-awaited story to the world.

Anne Darwin is expected to give evidence in her trial, as the defence case starts at Teesside Crown Court.

What she has to say is not known, but the jury in the trial has been told what her anticipated defence will be.

Prosecutor Andrew Robertson, QC, has already indicated that Mrs Darwin will claim "marital coercion".

The defence is based on her being forced against her will - by her husband - to carry out the alleged crimes.

Mrs Darwin denies six charges of fraud and nine counts described by the prosecution as "money laundering".

The 56-year-old is alleged to have plotted with her husband John to cash in £250,000 from life insurance policies.

It has been accepted that the in-debt couple, from Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, faked his death in March 2002.

Mrs Darwin has admitted lying to insurance and pension firms to collect cash to help ease their financial woes.

But she is expected to say that she did so because the pressure from her 57-year-old husband was overbearing.

Mr Darwin disappeared - and was later declared dead - after going out into the North Sea in his red kayak.

He returned to the family home weeks later and assumed a new identity as the rest of his relatives grieved.

Mrs Darwin has admitted she was part of the fake-death plot from the start, but claims it was her husband's idea.

She kept the fact he was alive from their sons, Mark and Anthony, for more than five years.

They were amazed when their father turned up at a police station in December claiming he was a missing person.

Mr Darwin, a former prison officer and trained teacher, claimed he was suffering from amnesia.

He told stunned officers that the last thing he could remember was a holiday with his wife to Norway in 2000.

It has since emerged that the couple planned his disappearance after encountering serious money problems.

Their deception came to light when a photograph of them together in Panama in the summer of 2006 emerged.

Mr Darwin has admitted a string of fraud charges and obtaining a passport by using a false name - John Jones.

The jury has heard from the two sons who said they felt betrayed by their parents when the truth came out.

Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, have been in court throughout the trial since giving their evidence on Tuesday.

They are expected to return to court room 11 today to hear their mother explain how and why she deceived them.

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