Following the passing of his terminally sick wife, David Hunter was found guilty of manslaughter despite being exonerated of murder.
In December 2021, Janice Hunter asphyxiated to death in the couple’s home in Cyprus’s Paphos region.
According to testimony given in court previously, Hunter, a former British miner, killed his terminally sick wife after she ‘cried and begged’ him to do it.
After being exonerated of her murder, the 76-year-old may now be allowed to leave prison.
Cypriot judges accepted that Hunter had a ‘loving’ and ‘dream’ relationship with his wife Janice, director of Justice Abroad Michael Polak said.
He told reporters: ‘The court accepted evidence that … on that morning she asked him to end her life.’
Hunter was said to be ‘speechless’ and ‘too tired to smile’ following the news.
Mr Polak continued: ‘I had a quick chat with David inside the courtroom where he was really speechless and we went down to the cells here at the court and spoke to him.
‘He said he hadn’t slept for three or four days, was very tired and said he is too tired to smile, but he is very pleased about what happened.
‘He would like to thank everyone who supported him in this case. This is the result he was looking for.’
Hunter will be sentenced on July 27.
In May, he broke down in tears as he told his trial that he would ‘never in a million years’ have taken Janice’s life unless she had asked him to.
He added: ‘She wasn’t just my wife, she was my best friend.’
He showed the court how he held his hands over his wife’s mouth and nose and said he eventually decided to grant his wife’s wish after she became ‘hysterical’.
Hunter, from Ashington in Northumberland, said: ‘For five or six weeks before she died she was asking me to help her. She was asking me more every day.
‘In the last week she was crying and begging me. Every day she asked me a bit more intensely to do it.’
Before he finished giving evidence, he asked to address the judge, who he told: ‘My wife was suffering and she actually said: “I don’t want to live any more,” and I still said no.
‘Then she started to become hysterical. I was hoping she would change her mind. I loved her so much. I did not plan it, I swear to God.’
After giving evidence he told reporters his time in a Cypriot prison was ‘nothing’ compared to the last six months of Janice’s life.
Hunter told the court he tried to kill himself after his wife’s death.
At trial, the prosecution said he ‘had decided to kill her and there was no common consent’.
During closing speeches in June, his defence team said it was not a case of premeditated murder and Hunter ‘acted spontaneously’ to end his wife’s life ‘upon her begging him to do so’.
They have also argued a confession he is said to have made when he was arrested should not have been used against him, claiming he was suffering from dissociation at the time.
A judge found Hunter was lucid and dismissed the application.
On Wednesday, the couple’s daughter Lesley Cawthorne said his her father is ‘anxious, tired and lonely’ and the past ’19 months has taken a huge toll on him’.
She added: ‘I think the hope has been crushed out of him.
‘He would probably tell other people he’s keeping his chin up but I see how much he’s struggling.’
A panel of three judges handed down the verdict following a lengthy trial.