Canoe scam wife Anne Darwin reveals she was mistaken for murderer Rose West in prison
Anne and husband John were jailed for outrageous fraud after he returned to the UK
CANOE conman John Darwin's wife has revealed fellow inmates mistook her for infamous serial killer Rose West while the pair were locked up in the same prison.
Anne Darwin and now ex-husband, John, were both jailed for their outrageous fraud – which saw John fake his own death in a kayaking accident in 2002.
Anne, 64, writes: “I went to the chapel whenever there was a Catholic mass.
“Occasionally, Rose would turn up with her officer in tow.
“On a couple of occasions, I was even mistaken for her, despite the fact we looked nothing alike, other than we both wore glasses.
“Two new women had arrived on the wing and when they first saw me, one of them asked if I was Rose West.
“I’d never imagined I’d be mistaken for a serial killer.”
Anne also served time with road rage killer Tracie Andrews in Askham Grange Prison, in Yorkshire.
Andrews murdered fiancé Lee Harvey, 25, and served 14 years until her release in 2012.
Anne said: “Rose West was creepy, she had such dark eyes. But Tracie was actually quite a gentle person.”
Anne and her husband John staged the canoe accident in order to claim life insurance.
Her husband hid out in a bedsit the family owned before heading to Panama.
During the five years Anne – from Seaton Carew near Hartlepool – let her sons believe their father was dead, she cleared £700,000 of debt using insurance, mortgage and pension payouts.
Then, John returned to the UK in 2007, walking into a London police station claiming to have suffered memory loss.
But the couple's luck ran out when a picture showing them in a Panama estate agent’s office in 2006 was handed to the press.
Then, their web of lies rapidly unravelled.
In court, Anne attempted to prove her innocence using the defence of marital coercion – but her own sons testified against her, and she received a six-and-a-half year sentence.
Writing in the Anne revealed she contemplated suicide – after her two sons cut all contact with her.
She has since said she begged husband John to tell the grieving boys he was still alive.
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