Jealous ex who killed Suzanne Pilley wins battle to review case
Experts will study conviction of man jailed for life
A MAN jailed for life for murdering his former lover has been granted a review of his case.
Former Royal Navy sailor David Gilroy was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murdering Suzanne Pilley in May 2010.
Miss Pilley, a bookkeeper, had set off on her usual journey to work in Edinburgh city centre but never arrived. Her body has never been found.
Gilroy went on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in February 2012 and was convicted of murder the following month.
Previous appeals have been rejected but the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission is undertaking a review of his case after receiving an initial application.
Last night a PR firm issued an extraordinary statement on behalf of the Gilroy family which said they remained ‘supportive’ of the killer and even criticised the justice system’s delay in recognising his innocence.
Experts will study the grounds for the review over the next eight months before deciding if it should be referred back to the High Court.
The jury in Gilroy’s trial heard he was driven by jealousy, maintained a front of normality and embarked on a series of acts to cover up his crime. He took 38year- old Miss Pilley’s body to a secret grave, believed to be in remote Argyll.
Gilroy, 52, has protested his innocence since the day Miss Pilley vanished.
The case made l egal history when Gilroy became the first convicted killer to
‘I would like closure for my family’
have his sentencing filmed for British television. When Gilroy was convicted, judge Lord Bracadale told him he hoped he would one day say where he abandoned the victim’s body.
Detectives believe that Gilroy, who is still married to his wife Andrea, killed Miss Pilley in the basement of the Edinburgh building where they both worked after she ended their affair.
Miss Pilley is thought to be buried in the vast Argyll Forest, but Gilroy has refused to disclose the location.
The statement on behalf of the Gilroy family said: ‘The family remain supportive of David in his work to bring to the attention of the justice system the significant flaws in the case brought against him.
‘He has now spent nearly three years in prison wrongly convicted of a crime which he did not commit.
‘The family is concerned at the time it is taking to get recognition of what they believe to be a serious miscarriage of justice involving faults by all parts of the justice system.’
The statement said the family hoped that 2015 will see ‘significant steps taken towards quashing his conviction and ending this protracted period of appalling injustice in all their lives’.
The Pilley family declined to comment on the statement last night.
Following an appeal in June last year on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme, detectives trying to find Miss Pilley’s remains received about a dozen calls.
Detectives said some of the Crimewatch callers’ information came from people who had never contacted them before.
At the time, Miss Pilley’s father, Rob, said the family wanted her body to be found to help give them some closure.
He added: ‘I always say the door’s just ajar – it’s not fully closed yet. That’s what I would really like – to put closure on it for myself and the rest of the family.’
Passing sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Lord Bracadale told Gilroy: ‘It seems you are the only person who knows where her body is.
‘I hope that a day will come in your life when you will feel able to disclose that information and that might bring some comfort to her bereft family.’
Miss Pilley’s mother Sylvia said that while she felt ‘justice has been done’ with Gilroy’s conviction, she ‘felt so sad after it because we weren’t going to get her back’.
In 2013, Gilroy failed to have judges at Britain’s highest court review his claims of a miscarriage of justice. He was told by Appeal Court judges in Edinburgh he could not have his case reviewed by the UK Supreme Court.
Gilroy’s legal team argued that police broke the law when they were investigating their client in the days following Miss Pilley’s disappearance.
Defence solicitor advocate John Scott, QC, wanted judges Lord Carloway, Lord Brodie and Lord Marnoch to refer the case to the Supreme Court in London to rule on whether police acted illegally.
But the judges refused, saying they were not convinced a miscarriage of justice had taken place.
The jury in his trial was told he was a ‘deceitful and controlling’ individual driven by jealousy.
In April 2012, he launched an appeal against his conviction but this was rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh in December of that year.
Later, in March, a second appeal was made to have his case reviewed by the UK Supreme Court after his legal team argued that police had broken the law while investigating their client, following the disappearance of Miss Pilley.
However, j udges refused the appeal and said they were not convinced a miscarriage of justice had taken place.