Reports say 'missing' canoeist's wife faces arrest

LONDON - Police will arrest the wife of the canoeist who reappeared five years after he was presumed drowned when she returns to Britain from Central America, according to media reports on Friday.

Anne Darwin, 55, is reportedly flying home from Panama after telling reporters that she has been "living a lie" and fears her children will never forgive her.

Her husband John Darwin was arrested this week on suspicion of fraud after walking into a London police station and telling officers he believed they might be looking for him.

Darwin, 57, vanished in March 2002 from his home in northeast England. Since reappearing, the former prison officer's family says he has no memory of events since 2000.

In an interview with Friday's Daily Mirror, his wife said: "I have been living my life as a lie, constantly looking over my shoulder. What have I done? I hate lying, I'm not a dishonest person. I really am so sorry."

She apologised to her sons, Mark and Anthony, after they said they felt they had been the victims of "a large scam".

"Who can blame them? How can they ever forgive me for what I've done?" she was quoted as saying in the Mirror.

Police have until noon on Friday to question John Darwin before they must apply to a court for a further extension, a Cleveland Police spokesman said.

Police had no comment on Sky News and BBC reports that his wife is returning to Britain and faces arrest.

British media said she sold her home and left Britain for central America with 450,000 pounds ($900,000) shortly before her husband's shock reappearance.

Earlier this week, the Mirror published a photo which apparently showed her with her "dead" husband in a Panama apartment last year.

The mystery began in 2002 when Anne Darwin reported her husband missing. She said she feared he had suffered an accident while kayaking in the North Sea near their home in Hartlepool, Cleveland.

A few weeks later the shattered remains of his red kayak were discovered. In 2003, following a police inquiry, a coroner declared him dead.