MIDDLESBROUGH, England, July 14 (UPI) -- The wife of a British man accused of faking his own death in a canoe accident aided in the charade and is guilty of deception, prosecutors say.
The trial of Anne Darwin, 56, began Monday and prosecutors say the former doctor's receptionist netted $500,000 through pretending her husband, John Darwin, 57, was dead when he actually was living next door to her, The Telegraph reported.
John Darwin disappeared after taking his canoe into the ocean at the couples' Hartlepool, England, home in 2002. A search turned up no body and Darwin was pronounced dead the following year. He reappeared last December, however, walking into a police station. Days later, a photograph surfaced showing the couple together in Panama in 2006, the newspaper said.
Anne Darwin's trial is at Teesside Crown Court in Middlesbrough, England.
