Insurance fraud is rarely as complex or as headline-grabbing as the case of Anne and John Darwin who faked the latter’s death in a canoe accident, lied to their children about their father’s passing and created a new life in Panama while claiming on his life insurance.
Over the last week, Anne Darwin has once again been in the news. Released from prison she has published excerpts of a biography in which she talks about being
mistaken for serial killer Rose West and then went on TV to express her sorrow at the events. However, her
TV appearance was met with anger from the public – and one family in particular.
Today headlines centre around the Darwins once again, as the family of a deceased child spoke out about their own involvement in the case.
When John Darwin disappeared, he assumed the identity of John Jones to obtain a passport – Jones was an infant who had died just a few weeks after his birth in 1950.
Now, his brother Alf Jones has spoken out to his local newspaper the
Sunderland Echo, to express his anger that among all the TV appearances Anne Darwin has made, not one single apology has been made to his own family.
“We’ve never had an apology,” he told the publication. “It’s frustrating. At the end of the day, when they took the identity of the child, they didn’t think about the consequences to the child’s parents. I don’t think they took that into account at all.
“I have asked to speak to Darwin on numerous occasions. The police were trying to arrange to speak to him, but Darwin flatly refused to speak to us. Did he not think about the baby’s mother and father and how this would affect them?
“There were questions I wanted to ask him. He’s had ample opportunity to apologise, but he never did. Now Anne Darwin is promoting her book. She’s also had ample opportunity, since day one, to apologise for what they did to us.
“She seems to be apologising to her sons for deceiving them about their father’s death. She made it out to be all about the money and her boys, but we were dragged into this. It just seems like John didn’t exist to them, that it was just a fictitious name. He wasn’t. He was a child – with a mother and father, brothers and sisters.”
Jones went on to explain that he is now campaigning for better protection of children’s birth certificates from fraud and has met with MPs.
Related stories:
TV viewers slam famous insurance scammer Anne Darwin
Infamous insurance scammer “mistaken for serial killer”
