Lords bid in Gilfoyle campaign

Dec 12 2012 Heswall News

A CAMPAIGN to prove the innocence of a Wirral man convicted of murdering his pregnant wife was taken to the House of Lords.

Eddie Gilfoyle was jailed in 1993 for killing his wife Paula, who was found hanged while eight months pregnant in the garage of their Upton home.

Gilfoyle, 50, served 18 years in jail and was released in December 2010 but has always insisted on his innocence.

At the House of Lords last week Gilfoyle’s former MP Lord Hunt of Wirral hosted the launch of a new booklet which alleges “the case against Eddie Gilfoyle rested on improbable hypotheses which rapidly descended into absurdity”.

Gilfoyle’s trial was told his wife would not have committed suicide and she was happy and bubbly despite a suicide note written in her hand.

The booklet claimed a missing 1972-1976 diary told of a previous suicide attempt, which supporters believe could have led to his acquittal if disclosed at the trial.

Lord Hunt said: “This is another big and important step in the campaign to prove Eddie Gilfoyle’s innocence.

“We are actively promoting this booklet and bringing it to the attention of ministers in government and the law and order authorities, just to say ‘isn’t it about time people treated this case with the urgency it so desperately needs’?”

Gilfoyle was convicted in 1993 after a jury accepted the prosecution case that he made his wife’s death look like a suicide by forcing her to write a note. He lost two appeals in 1995 and 2000.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is currently assessing an application made by Gilfoyle to them to have his case referred to the court of appeal.

The booklet produced by Gilfoyle’s camp concluded: “Had the jury been aware of the mass of evidence pointing to Eddie Gilfoyle’s innocence which has emerged since his trial, it is inconceivable that they would have convicted him.”