Canoe conman John Darwin’s new Filipina wife slams ITV over drama ‘dredging up’ the details of his extraordinary plot to fake his own death 20 years ago – and says fraudster, 71, is ‘happy, healthy’ and wants to be left alone
- EXCLUSIVE: Mercy Mae Darwin says husband wants to be left alone
- Darwin, 71, has made a new life in the Philippines with mother-of-three Mercy
- MailOnline tracked the couple down to Antipolo, an hour from capital Manila
- They own £30,000 three-storey house with grilled windows in gated community
Canoe conman John Darwin’s new Filipina wife has slammed the makers of an ITV drama for ‘dredging up’ the details of his extraordinary plot to fake his own death 20 years ago.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Mercy Mae Darwin, 48, says her husband is ‘happy, healthy’ and just wants to be left alone to get on with his life.
She said: ‘My husband is happy and healthy and I’m looking after him. We don’t want his past life all dredged up again on TV and in newspapers. ‘I know what he did, he knows, and he paid penalty for that, he doesn’t need to be reminded.’
Darwin, 71, has made a new life in the Philippines with mother-of-three Mercy, who is 23 years his junior, after his release from prison over his £679,000 life insurance scam.
MailOnline tracked the couple down to Mercy’s hometown in Antipolo, an hour’s drive from the capital, where they own a £30,000 three-storey house with grilled windows in the relatively affluent gated community of Louiseville.
Canoe conman John Darwin’s new Filipina wife has slammed the makers of an ITV drama for ‘dredging up’ the details of his extraordinary plot to fake his own death 20 years ago. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Mercy Mae Darwin (pictured), 48, says her husband is ‘happy, healthy’ and just wants to be left alone to get on with his life
Darwin, 71, has made a new life in the Philippines with mother-of-three Mercy, who is 23 years his junior, after his release from prison over his £679,000 life insurance scam
Mercy, 48, spoke for the first time about her husband’s fraud and blasted the new TV series ‘The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe’, which starts this month.
She is angry that the ITV drama, starring Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan, chronicling Darwin’s great deception, will once again put her husband under the spotlight.
Darwin was a prison offer who was heavily in debt when he staged an accident and faked his own drowning in the sea near Hartlepool in 2002 to get his hands on a life insurance payout.
His ex-wife Anne lied to their two sons and said Darwin was dead while he hid in a bedsit next door and listened through a partition in the wall as Anne’s two sons comforted their bereaved mother.
The couple later moved to Panama and bought property with the cash.
But Darwin had visa trouble and returned to the UK. He pretended his disappearance had been due to memory loss.
Mercy is angry that the ITV drama, starring Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan (both pictured), chronicling Darwin’s great deception, will once again put her husband under the spotlight
He and Anne were nailed by a photo showing them together in Panama.
They were both jailed for six years for fraud in 2008 as the extent of their deception shocked the world. They later divorced.
In Antipolo where Darwin is living, neighbours said even now, two decades on from his great deception, Darwin is proving elusive and difficult to pin down.
He and Mercy left the property during the lockdown and they had boasted of living in a larger house in the area which had full air-conditioning against the sweltering 35C tropical heat of the city.
Oddly though, no-one knows where the fraudster is staying as he hasn’t been seen at the marital home for months.
Ludicrously, Mercy even told one newspaper last week that her husband had gone to fight in Ukraine, saying: ‘Yes, dangerous for the Russian when he shoot them.’
She added, in reference to Darwin’s life insurance scam: ‘He will have a bullet proof vest and good life insurance… good for me.’
Darwin was a prison offer who was heavily in debt when he staged an accident and faked his own drowning in the sea near Hartlepool in 2002 to get his hands on a life insurance payout. He and his wife Anne later moved to Panama but were caught when this photo of them emerged
Mercy (pictured in the Philippines) told one newspaper last week that her husband had gone to fight in Ukraine, saying: ‘Yes, dangerous for the Russian when he shoot them’
At the same time neighbours said one of Mercy’s sons from a previous relationship is still living in the house while Darwin is keeping a low profile.
Mercy, who owns a clothing business and a storage firm, clearly does not relish her own life coming under the microscope either.
She spoke to MailOnline after we made enquiries at the nearby Barangay office of the local council, where officer-in-charge Regina Vergara Jebulan offered to help us reach the Darwins.
Having contacted Mercy on the phone Ms Vergara announced that the new Mrs Darwin wanted to meet our reporter to ‘speak her mind’.
An hour later, she burst into the room wearing denim shorts, sandals and a tee-shirt, her striking and surprisingly youthful features largely concealed under a blue headscarf and a surgical facemask. She was accompanied by an older man, believed to be her uncle.
Agitated, Mercy refused to shake hands and launched almost immediately into a tirade against the media in general.
MailOnline tracked the couple down to Mercy’s hometown in Antipolo, an hour’s drive from the capital, where they own a £30,000 three-storey house with grilled windows in the relatively affluent gated community of Louiseville
She said local journalists had suggested her family were part of the huge ‘squatter’ community which makes up part of Manila’s urban poor, which she vehemently denied.
‘They told neighbours I was squatter, it’s not true, they have no right!’ she shouted.
‘They published photos of my siblings, which broke their hearts. We are private people, not celebrities. We have rights. We work hard, we have property, we’re not squatters.’
According to one of the few British ex-pats in Antipolo, Darwin has chosen the perfect place to ‘disappear’ again, if that was his intention.
Ian Rudkin, 64, owner of the popular Outrigger bar and restaurant which commands spectacular views over Manila, has never seen Darwin, despite living nearby.
‘This isn’t one of those places full of retired Brits,’ said Ian, who moved here with his Filipina wife Rowena, 60, about a decade ago.
‘You can be completely anonymous here without having to try. There are only a handful of Brits in the city and they don’t tend to mix with each other much.
Darwin and Mercy Mae couple lived until recently in the white house pictured above
Ian Rudkin, 64, owner of the popular Outrigger bar and restaurant which commands spectacular views over Manila, has never seen Darwin, despite living nearby
‘I remember John Darwin’s story, but he’s never been here – maybe the union jack on our sign put him off!
‘It seems odd to me that he and his Filipina wife would just give over a property to her children when they could be getting a proper rent from it – I bet he’s still living in there.
‘After all, if anyone knows how to disappear from the world, it’s him!’
Since his release in 2011, Darwin has offered little explanation for his actions.
Instead, he seemed to devote much of his energy into looking for younger women online, signing himself off as ‘John from England with blue eyes’.
He even got himself rearrested in Ukraine for a breach of his probation by travelling abroad to meet a potential sweetheart.
He first surfaced in the Philippines in 2015 after meeting Mercy online. Less than two months after their first encounter, the couple were married.
Mercy, who owns a clothing business and a storage firm, clearly does not relish her own life coming under the microscope. Above left: The couple together. Above right: Darwin in 2007
The wreckage of the canoe in which Darwin paddled out to sea to fake his own death is seen above
But however happy he is with Mercy, Darwin is said to have little or no relationship with his sons, Mark and Anthony.
The boys mourned his passing for years before learning he had been alive all along in what the judge at his trial called ‘the grossest form of betrayal.’
This week it emerged that one of the sons secretly watched the ITV drama being filmed at Seaton Carew, where it all began.
None of the Darwin family members was involved in the production of the drama, which is partially inspired by journalist David Leigh and Anne’s account of the story in 2016 book Out of My Depth.
Marsan said one of Darwin’s sons turned up ‘in disguise’ on the first day of filming and that the cast and crew didn’t find out until later.
Darwin and Mercy left the property during the coronavirus lockdown and they had boasted of living in a larger house in the area which had full air-conditioning against the sweltering 35C tropical heat of the city. Above: The couple on their wedding day
After her release from prison, Anne Darwin (pictured left in March) moved to a village near York and was able to get a job with the RSCPA thanks to qualifications she gained in prison. Right: Darwin with his second wife on their wedding day
He explained that one of the sons watched the filming, concealing his identity with a baseball cap and a COVID mask.
Marsan said he didn’t feel the need to contact John Darwin in person before taking on the role, instead drawing from his interviews in the media and public persona.
He added: ‘I think if John had the self-awareness to be able to give me some kind of insight into himself, he wouldn’t have done [the crime].
‘So I’d rather not [meet him]. I don’t need to sit and listen to someone like that.’
When John Darwin himself was once asked by a US journalist if he had regrets, he said: ‘Don’t do the crime, and if you do, don’t come back. It’s easy to fake your own death. It’s damn difficult to come back.’
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