Expats stabbed to death in Cyprus home

AN elderly British couple were found stabbed to death in their home in northern Cyprus in a crime that has shocked and baffled the tight-knit expatriate community.

The bodies of Reece and Anne Mahoney, aged 71 and 63, were discovered yesterday morning at their house in the pretty hillside village of Lapithos. Police said valuable items had been left untouched.

"It is definitely murder, with a knife or sharp implement," a police spokesman said, adding that the bodies had lain undetected for three or four days.

The couple had been killed in a "particularly violent way". The Mahoneys’ home, sealed off by police yesterday, is a two-storey whitewashed villa with wooden shutters and a mature garden with lemon trees, in the lower part of the village near the sea.

Friends and neighbours, several of them in tears, described the Mahoneys as a "lovely" couple who were pillars of the community and involved in an animal welfare charity.

The pair had been married for about 25 years and had lived in northern Cyprus for at least 17 years, said locals. Mr Mahoney’s first wife, by whom he had a son, had died only a week or two ago, they said. Mr Mahoney was a retired lorry driver from east London.

"Anne and Reece were such lovely people. They could never have done any harm to anyone. They had no enemies," one long-time friend said as she dabbed away tears.

One local said that the double murder followed a number of burglaries targeting the homes of expatriates. "Just a few days ago, an elderly British woman disturbed a burglar and was pushed over. She had to have six stitches in her head."

Another said Reece had put donation boxes for an animal rescue centre at every pub in northern Cyprus. "They’re such beautiful people and they did so much work for animal rescue."

Lapithos is several miles west of Kyrenia on Cyprus’s northern coast and is home to several hundred Britons with retirement and holiday homes.

"We heard Reece had been hit on the head and stabbed," one friend said.

He added that the couple was so popular that when Mr Mahoney’s vehicle became stuck on the beach recently and he had not been seen for a few hours, the whole village went out looking for him.

Another friend said the couple owned three or four big dogs and he could not understand why they had not been heard barking when the crime was being committed.

One neighbour, a Turkish Cypriot woman, described the Mahoneys as "nice people" who always waved at her when they passed her house. "I’m very sad for them," she said.

No suspects have been arrested and an autopsy is due to take place today.