Police release photo used by 'back-from-dead' Brit

Last Updated: Monday, December 10, 2007 | 12:23 PM ET

CBC News

British police have released a photograph apparently showing John Darwin, the man accused of faking his death in a kayaking accident, during the years he was presumed dead.

Cleveland Police Deputy Supt. Tony Hutchinson said the black-and-white photograph showing a bearded man with long hair is the picture Darwin used to procure a fake passport in 2003 under the alias John Jones.

This photo, released by British police Monday, was allegedly used by John Darwin on his bogus passport after he faked his death.
(Associated Press/Cleveland Police)

In a news conference Monday, Hutchinson appealed for anyone in Britain, Europe, North America and Central America who recognize Darwin from the photo to contact police.

Darwin went missing from his home in Hartlepool in northeast England in 2002 and was presumed dead after his kayak turned up in pieces on a beach along the North Sea. But on Dec. 1, he walked into a London police station claiming he couldn't remember the past seven years.

On Monday, he made his first court appearance on charges he made an untrue statement to procure a passport and dishonestly obtained an insurance claim by faking his death.

The former prison officer and science teacher did not enter a plea on either charge, and spoke only twice during proceedings to confirm his name and birth date.

The Hartlepool Magistrates' Court ordered him to be held in jail until Friday, when he is to appear again via video link.

Wife questioned

Meanwhile, detectives were questioning his 55-year-old wife, Anne, on Monday about her involvement in the alleged scam.

She was arrested on Sunday after her flight from Atlanta, Ga., arrived at Manchester Airport, and is being held on suspicion of fraud.

Detectives want to know if she knows how her husband hid for five years, whether the two maintained contact, and how they came to be photographed together in Panama while he was presumed dead.

Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper published a photograph apparently of the couple standing with a real estate agent in Panama last July.

Hid for 3 years: report

The newspaper has also quoted Anne Darwin as saying they were burdened by tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

"John said there was only one way out of the situation, and that was to fake his death. I pleaded with him not to do it. I said it was the wrong thing to do," the newspapers quoted her as saying.

But she said that she didn't expect her husband to go through with the plan and genuinely thought he was dead when she claimed the life insurance policy.

A year after his disappearance, he came knocking at her door, she reportedly said, and he pressured her to keep it a secret.

He then moved back in, hiding in a small room reached through a closet for three years, she reportedly said.