The Canoe Man Appeals

Whatever may be the rights or wrongs of the John Darwin canoe drowning case, and one tends to assume there is more of the latter than the former, there can be no doubt that the affair has piqued the interest of the UK population. It is noteworthy that, for several months after the news broke, sports and equipment shops in the UK were reporting record numbers of enquiries from prospective buyers of canoes.

While many of us would deplore the action of defrauding an insurance company of large amounts of their cash, at the same time, we cannot help but nurse a secret wish that we could get away with it. Most people, it seems, are deeply resentful of the amount of money the insurance companies take from us each year. So when an adventurer like Darwin comes along, it is hard not to feel a sneaking admiration for his audacity. And to make it even more interesting, we find that he was not caught by the police; he gave himself up.

A fascinating aspect of the case is that, as the prosecutor pointed out, the original crime was committed in order to avoid the "shame and embarrassment" of falling behind with debt and mortgage payments. Surely only an Englishman would commit a crime as serious as this for such a motive, merely to avoid embarrassment!

One is reminded of those marvellous episodes of "Fawlty Towers" in which Basil twists and turns, willing to do anything to avoid being embarrassed, only to find that all his efforts have only made the embarrassment worse. Sphere: Related Content