Prosecutor: Wife of 'Canoe Man' lied

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The wife of a British man who reappeared five years after he was believed drowned "lied at length" to cover up her part in a $500,000 insurance con, a court heard Tuesday.

The UK Press Association reported that the jury at Teesside Crown Court in northern England heard how Anne Darwin, 56, stuck to her story that she was a bereaved widow despite overwhelming police evidence to the contrary.

Her husband John, a former prison officer and teacher, reappeared at a police station in central London in late 2007 -- five years after he was thought to have drowned in a canoeing accident off the coast of north-east England.

A coroner declared John Darwin dead in 2003, 13 months after his disappearance.

According to PA, prosecuting lawyer Andrew Robertson told the jury: "It is the Crown's submission that far from dealing here with a 'shrinking violet', we have here a determined, resolute woman who was able to lie and deceive at length - literally at length."

Robertson added that Darwin "was able to act out equally the emotions of a tragically bereaved widow and the emotions of a weak woman who was somehow bullied into telling lies for nigh on six years."

The former doctor's receptionist denies six counts of deception and nine of money-laundering which relate to her alleged activity following Darwin's disappearance in March 2002.

She has instead put forward an initial defense of "marital coercion," claiming her husband forced her to go along with his plan.

However Robertson told the jury that when Darwin walked into a London police station last December, claiming to be suffering from amnesia, his wife was living in Panama with assets of almost $1million, PA reported.

"Of course, news of their father's return from the dead was immediately passed on to Mark and Anthony," he said. "Needless to say, they were absolutely stunned.

"They contacted their mother and -- this says everything, say the Crown -- on receipt of this news that her husband was still alive she pretended to be overcome with emotion, putting up a pretence that John Darwin -- her long-lost husband -- had returned from the dead.

"In our submission, this was a woman who even at this stage, when the writing's on the wall, had the strength of character to keep to the original story."

PA reported that the jury was then shown a photograph of the Darwins with an estate agent in Panama, which was reportedly taken in 2004. In the days following Darwin's reappearance this photograph was then published in a national newspaper.

Anne Darwin insisted that she had genuinely believed he had drowned and had continued to believe this when she started making insurance claims.

John Darwin's canoe was found in the sea close to his home at Seaton Carew in 2002. A huge air-sea search failed to find any trace of his body, and he was later pronounced dead.

He has since admitted deception and will be sentenced later.

The case continues.