Husband cleared of killing kept burial secret
FOUR distraught siblings were forced to “gatecrash” their own sister’s funeral after her husband arranged a secret ceremony. Despite being charged with killing his wife Maureen after her death in September 2017, Neil Crilley won a court battle against her sisters for the right to bury her. Katie Friel, Margaret Colquhoun, May Mackie and Helen Jamieson only found out about the clandestine funeral, which took place six months after Maureen’s death, after a tip-off. They turned up at the cemetery in Clydebank and paid their respects as Crilley tried to lay his wife to rest with only BY MARK McGIVERN Chief Reporter himself and an undertaker in attendance.
The Record told yesterday how a jury returned a not proven verdict on a culpable homicide charge against the 77-year-old, who admitted he had allowed Maureen, 67, to die in agony after lying on a floor in their home for eight weeks with a broken leg, brain infection and saucer-sized sores on her back. Crilley refused to phone an ambulance until she was close to death.
The sisters confronted him as he walked free from the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday. Katie shouted at Crilley: “You evil b ***** d. You killed my sister.”
Katie, 58, told the Record: “We wanted to bury our sister in dignity but the legal process and the police investigation meant it was six months before the funeral took place.
“After Neil took us to court, we were devastated when a sheriff took his side and said he could look after the funeral arrangements.
“We had already booked our own undertakers and we would have had a regular ceremony that would have people who loved Maureen in attendance.”
Crilley bought a headstone which he erected in December 2017 at a plot at North Dalnottar Cemetery in Clydebank. He regularly visited it and laid flowers, despite the fact his wife’s body was being held in storage at a hospital miles away.
Katie said: “We found out from a source when the graveside ceremony was taking place at the last minute and we were able to turn up.
“We shouldn’t have been forced to do that. It was like gatecrashing our own sister’s funeral.”