Eddie freed on licence - click here for film of Granada TV interview

Justice at last for Eddie Gilfoyle?by John Walsh,13 August 2010

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Nine blunders revealed in investigation by undisclosed police report

An internal inquiry by Merseyside Police was not disclosed to the defence at Eddie Gilfoyle’s trial and the background notes have been destroyed.

Now Desmond Browne, QC, the Bar Council chairman-elect, has become the latest high-profile figure to say he believes that the conviction of Innocent Eddie is unsafe.

By Dominic Kennedy 21 April 2008

Expert recants on key evidence

The pioneer of criminal profiling in Britain has switched sides to say that a man he helped to jail for life for murdering his wife is innocent.

By Dominic Kennedy 25 February 2008

A hospital technician jailed for murdering his heavily pregnant wife has had his second appeal for freedom rejected by the Court of Appeal.

Eddie Gilfoyle, 38, of Upton, Merseyside, was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court in 1993 of killing former factory worker Paula Gilfoyle and faking her suicide.

The Appeal Court ruled on Wednesday that his conviction was safe.

Lord Justice Rose said: "We are unpersuaded that the jury's verdict might have been affected by the new evidence which we have heard. The verdict in our judgment is safe. Accordingly, this appeal is dismissed."

The case was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission on the basis of fresh psychological and pathological evidence.

The appeal hearing was held last Wednesday but the three judges reserved their decision to consider the new evidence.

During the hearing Gilfoyle's counsel Michael Mansfield told the judges that crucial evidence in the case was destroyed or not kept. It was one of the features that had "bedevilled" the case, he said.

Gilfoyle's sister, Susan Caddick, said she was "absolutely devastated" by the judges' decision.

"I think the judgment was very dishonest in the light of all the evidence which has been brought, not just in this appeal but in the first appeal," she said.

She added that the family would consult their lawyers to decide whether to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights or possibly the House of Lords.

"We have been treated disgracefully throughout this system and every single stage I have seen - it's obscene to observe it. We will get Eddie out whatever it takes. The fight goes on."

Gilfoyle's solicitor, Campbell Malone, said he was "baffled" by the judgement. "I'm sure that Eddie will be angry and disappointed," he said.

Mr Malone added that he felt that Gilfoyle had been let down by the investigation, the trial and the appeals which first rejected alibi evidence and on this occasion, fresh expert evidence.

"I think the process as a whole is unfair - wholly flawed - and I think Eddie has been very poorly served," he said.

Gilfoyle, who served as an army ward orderly in the Falklands, has consistently denied murdering his second wife Paula, who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. He maintained that he found a suicide note when he returned home from work.

But the jury at Liverpool Crown Court concluded that Gilfoyle tricked his wife into writing the note for a fictitious psychology class at the hospital where he worked.

Gilfoyle's first appeal against his conviction in October 1995 was rejected. The court concluded that new evidence was not of such weight that the verdict should be regarded as unsafe and unsatisfactory.

See also:
Eddie Gilfoyle Campaign Newsletter / August 2001
Eddie Gilfoyle Campaign Newsletter / May 2001
Times Law Report from 13 Feb 2001

The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision in a second bid for freedom by a hospital technician jailed for murdering his heavily pregnant wife. Eddie Gilfoyle, of Upton, Merseyside, was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court in 1993 of killing former factory worker Paula Gilfoyle and faking her suicide.

During the appeal hearing in London on Wednesday, Gilfoyle's counsel Michael Mansfield told the three appeal judges that crucial evidence in the case was destroyed or not kept. It was one of the features that had "bedevilled" the case, he said.

The case has now been referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission on the basis of fresh psychological and pathological evidence. The court said it hoped to be able to announce its decision next week.

Gilfoyle was present in the dock for his second legal bid to have his conviction quashed.

Lord Justice Rose, sitting with Mrs Justice Hallett and Mr Justice Crane, said: "We shall take time to consider our judgment."

Gilfoyle, who served as an army ward orderly in the Falklands, has consistently denied murdering his second wife Paula, who was eight and a half months pregnant. He maintained that he found a suicide note when he returned home from work.

But the jury at Liverpool Crown Court concluded that Gilfoyle tricked his wife into writing the note for a fictitious psychology class at the hospital where he worked.

Gilfoyle's first appeal against his conviction in October 1995 was rejected. The court concluded that new evidence was not of such weight that the verdict should be regarded as unsafe and unsatisfactory.

There was "abundant evidence" that Eddie Gilfoyle killed his pregnant wife Paula in an elaborate suicide hoax, an appeal court hearing was told.

But lawyers for Gilfoyle, 39, of Upton, Wirral, are arguing that his murder conviction at Liverpool crown court in 1993 was "unsafe and unsatisfactory."

In a hearing expected to last two weeks at the appeal court in London, barrister Michael Mansfield will present what he says is new evidence on behalf of Gilfoyle that Paula took her own life.

Mrs Gilfoyle was aged 33 and only two weeks away from giving birth when found hanging in the couple's garage in June, 1992.

It was the prosecution's case at Gilfoyle's trial that he persuaded her to write a suicide note before tricking her into the garage for a "suicide simulation" that he intended to be the real thing.

Gilfoyle has continued to protest his innocence and the case has been referred to the court of appeal by the criminal cases review commission.

Yesterday, William Clegg, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, told Lord Justice Rose, Mrs Justice Hallett and Mr Justice Crane that there was no reasonable doubt about the safety of Gilfoyle's conviction.

He said the pathology evidence at the trial had been inconclusive as to whether Paula killed herself, but that had been a matter for the jury.

He said: "The fact remains that it was accepted at trial that the pathology evidence could not decide the case. It may be murder, it may be suicide. Either is possible as a reflection of the pathology. The effect of that evidence at trial was that people can commit suicide and be found in the same state as Paula Gilfoyle was found. But, of course, people can also be killed and left in that state."

Mr Clegg told the judges: "The thing that enabled the jury to find Gilfoyle guilty at trial was not pathology. It was the conclusion that the jury came to on abundant other evidence."

(Proceeding)

A court has been told that experts accept it is rare for a pregnant woman to commit suicide.

The Appeal Court hearing into the conviction of Eddie Gilfoyle for murdering his wife was also told that homicide by hanging was even rarer.

The claims were made by barrister Michael Mansfield, representing Gilfoyle at the hearing in London.

Gilfoyle was jailed for life in 1993 for killing his wife Paula and faking her suicide.

Paula, 32, was 8½ months pregnant when her body was found hanging in the garage of the couple's home in Upton, Wirral. Gilfoyle has maintained his innocence all along.

Mr Mansfield said that expert evidence on suicides, which he termed "the cut and thrust of the case", were served on the defence but not provided to the jury at Gilfoyle's trial in Liverpool.

He said that the defence would have been faced with very strong prejudices over whether a woman who was pregnant would commit suicide.

Into the middle of this "emotional maelstrom" came the evidence of a prosecution pathologist, which he submitted was the "fulcrum" between the two competing sides and which turned the case around.

Seen by the jury as a rational independent scientist, this witness had said very little in his pre-trial reports except that it was a typical "snatch" hanging case with no struggle.

But, in the witness box, he had ruled out suicide by giving evidence about the significance of Mrs Gilfoyle's feet on the bottom rung of the ladder.

This indicated that she must have been standing on the ground when a rope was placed around her head and someone made it look like suicide.

Mr Mansfield added: "So, in one fell swoop he's saying it's not suicide, it's murder."

The question was whether a "potential mother killed herself and her child so close to birth", something many people would find "inconceivable".

On the other hand, said Mr Mansfield, there was no suggestion that the appellant "was not himself looking forward as a father to the birth of his son and so if he murdered her he murdered his son".

(Proceeding)

The case of a man convicted of killing his heavily pregnant wife and faking her suicide has been referred to the Court of Appeal, it was announced today.

Eddie Gilfoyle, now 37, was sentenced to life imprisonment at Liverpool Crown Court on July 3, 1993, for the murder of his wife Paula.

The 33-year-old factory machinist was found hanging in the garage of their home in Upton, Wirral, Merseyside, on June 4, 1992, just two weeks before she was due to give birth to their first child.

Hospital technician Gilfoyle has constantly claimed his wife committed suicide and his story has been the subject of a Channel 4 Trial And Error documentary.

An appeal against his conviction was refused by the full Court of Appeal on October 20, 1995. Just three days later, representations regarding the safety of the conviction were first made to the Home Office.

On March 31, 1997, it was transferred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission which took over jurisdiction for suspected miscarriages of justice from the Home Secretary.

In a statement today, a commission spokesman said: "Following submissions from the applicant's solicitor and family, and the completion of its own inquiries, the commission has concluded that Mr Gilfoyle's conviction should be reconsidered by the Court of Appeal."

Speaking to PA News tonight, Gilfoyle's sister Susan Caddick said she was delighted with the news.

"We were informed this afternoon and are obviously absolutely delighted. Eddie feels the same as the family. He's hopeful that this time he will get justice and come home.

"We had an appeal in 1995 but a lot of the evidence that was presented, the judges weren't sympathetic to. We are hoping this time round, the judges will hear all the evidence.

"The new evidence is overwhelming and shows that this lady committed suicide and an innocent man is in prison. We know that there has been a gross injustice here," said Mrs Caddick, 40.

Mrs Caddick said she sympathised with her sister-in-law's family and accepted that they had lost a daughter.

"All the same, I don't believe that you can make a victim out of Eddie."

She added that a date for the appeal had still to be decided, but that today's news was welcomed by her brother's supporters.