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Anthony (left) and Mark Darwin

THE past two weeks must have been hell for the sons of John and Anne Darwin.

Anthony and Mark Darwin, both of whom have strong Basingstoke connections, have had to hear the details of their mother's web of lies, which lasted more than five years, played out in court in front of the world's media.

The brothers, who have attended every day of their mother's trial at Teesside Crown Court, both gave evidence from the witness box, and spoke of their anger and resentment after their mother let them believe their father was dead for five years.

Mark, whose girlfriend Felicia Watts lives in Camrose Way, Basingstoke, told the jury: "I could not believe that she (my mother) knew he was alive all this time, and I had been lied to for God knows how long."

John Darwin vanished after taking out his canoe near the seafront home in Seaton Carew, Teesside, that he shared with his wife on March 21, 2002, and was declared dead by a coroner a year later.

Jurors also heard from Anthony and Mark during the trial about their shock at being told their 57-year-old father had turned up at a London police station last December, saying he was suffering from amnesia.

The pair took their father to Anthony's home in Ajax Close, Chineham, but police officers swooped on the house shortly after a photograph appeared in a national newspaper, apparently showing John and Anne Darwin with a property agent in Panama in 2006.

John Darwin was arrested and his wife would soon follow him in being taken into custody and charged in connection with the scam when she returned from Panama, where she had been living.

Giving evidence during his mother's trial, Mark said he knew she had lied when he saw the photograph of his smiling parents taken in a Panama estate agents.

However, Anthony said he thought the image was faked and had been doctored by an internet prankster. It was only when he read a newspaper confession by his mother that he realised he too had been cruelly duped.

When asked how he felt at that moment, he scratched his head and replied: "Upset, betrayed, I don't know."

Mark recalled to the court how he had travelled from Basingstoke to comfort his mother in the days after his father's disappearance.

"She wouldn't stop crying for ages. We stood in the drawing room doorway. It crushed my world."

In the days after their parents' arrest, Mark and Anthony issued a statement in which they disowned their parents.

Despite initial suspicions that they may have known of their parents' fraudulent plot, the police said both sons were completely unaware of the scam.

Speaking about the brothers after their parents had been arrested, Detective Inspector Andy Greenwood, who led the investigation, said: "They feel very let down and they feel betrayed by the two people who they could trust in their lives the most."

During her trial, Anne Darwin, a former doctors' receptionist, claimed what the judge called an "unusual defence" of marital coercion - meaning her husband, a former prison officer, made her act against her will and was present each time an offence was committed.

She accepted she was part of the plot from the start - even tricking Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29 - but claimed it was not her idea.

The court heard that unknown to Mark and Anthony, their father lived in secret in one of the bedsits in the property he and his wife owned next door, and got a passport in the name of John Jones.

Anne Darwin claimed she was dominated throughout her marriage by her "persistent" husband and was forced to go along with the fraud by him.

However, jurors took less than four hours to see through her lies and found her guilty of all charges - six counts of fraud and nine of money laundering totalling some £250,000.

In his closing speech to the jury, Prosecutor Andrew Robertson, QC, said the now infamous photograph of the Darwins, in Panama four years after John disappeared, summed up the whole case.

He said: "It shows the two criminals in this case happy together in the land where they felt they were going to find some security away from the UK, each playing their own role, both equally guilty. They were in it together - this was a joint effort."

9:59am Thursday 24th July 2008

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