Man wrongly jailed for M50 murder found dead
AFORMER soldier who spent time in jail after being wrongly convicted of the violent murder of a pregnant housewife has died.
Eddie Browning served six years in prison for the notorious M50 murder of Marie Wilks, before being released in 1994.
The pregnant housewife, 22, was found with her throat cut on the side of the motorway near Bushley, in Hereford and Worcester, after her car had broken down in June 1988.
She was attacked while making an emergency call.
In a recording of that call, the police operative can be heard repeating “Mrs Wilks” over and over again.
Her 11-year-old sister Georgina was found clutching Marie’s 13-month-old son as they wandered along the road trying to find her.
The killing made national headlines and led to a huge murder hunt involving almost every force in Wales and England.
Seven days later, former Welsh Guardsman Eddie Browning, 41, from Cwmparc in the Rhondda, was arrested after a colleague reported he looked like a photofit that had been issued.
Mr Browning resembled the picture, had a history of violence, owned a butterfly knife and had driven from his home to Scotland in his silver Renault 25 after a row with his wife on the evening of the murder.
At his trial, Mr Browning maintained his innocence and said he had used the M4, Severn Bridge and M5 on the night, not the M50.
He was found guilty and spent six years behind bars before being released in May 1994 after the Court of Appeal decided his conviction was unsafe because evidence was kept from his trial by the police.
Mr Browning later received a substantial payout, believed to be more than £600,000, as compensation for the time he spent in prison.
No-one has been brought to justice for the crime.
It is understood Mr Browning went to live on a farm in Ceredigion after being released from prison.
In 2005, he was cleared of unlawfully carrying an illegal knife in a public place, but admitted driving while three times the legal drinkdrive limit. He successfully argued that he had good reason for having the knife as he used the three-inch blade on his cattle farm to cut bales of hay and had forgotten it was in his pocket when he went out. He said friends had spiked his drink without his knowledge.
Dyfed-Powys Police said they were called to the sudden death of a 63-year-old man at around 6pm on May 13. A spokeswoman said: “The man died at home in the Llanfair Clydogau area of Lampeter. Next of kin and HM Coroner have been informed. The death is not being treated as suspicious.”