A man who has spent decades insisting he did not murder his pregnant wife will make another emotional attempt to clear his name in tonight’s The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.
Eddie Gilfoyle, now in his 60s, was jailed for life in 1993 after being convicted of murdering his wife Paula.
She was found hanged in the garage of their home while eight and a half months pregnant.
Eddie Gilfoyle was given a life sentence for the murder of his wife (Credit: Channel 4)
Despite there being no forensic evidence, police concluded Eddie had persuaded Paula, 32, to take her own life.
The prosecution case centred largely on the belief that Paula was a “bubbly” young woman who would not have taken her own life, particularly while heavily pregnant.
In the Channel 4 documentary, Eddie is asked directly: “Did you kill your wife?”
He replies: “I did not kill my wife. My wife took her own life.”
Eddie adds: “I want to clear my name. That’s what I’m living for.”
The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt’s Eddie Gilfoyle case
The latest episode begins in 1992 in Upton, Wirral, when Eddie returns home to find an alarming handwritten note.
Unable to find Paula, he races to get his brother-in-law, Paul Craddick, to help search the house.
It is Paul, who later married Eddie’s sister, who makes the devastating discovery in the garage after opening the door and finding Paula hanging from the ceiling.
Paul tells the documentary that Eddie never saw Paula’s body. He does remember his friend “wailing and wailing” after learning what had happened.
Police initially treated the death as suicide. Within days, however, detectives changed direction and focused on Eddie as their main suspect.
Paul, a retired police officer, says: “[The garage] was not treated like a crime scene. And the consequences of that can be catastrophic.”
Eddie soon found himself at the centre of intense media attention over a crime he insists he never committed.
Looking visibly emotional in the documentary, he recalls rumours spreading around the local community.
“Someone threw a noose at the window of my mum and dad’s house and that’s what flipped me over the top,” he says. “It all got too much and I ended up in a psychiatric hospital.”
While receiving treatment, Eddie was rearrested and charged with Paula’s murder.
He recalls: “It was a nightmare, upon nightmare, upon nightmare.
“I’d never been in a prison. I ended up going into a room where they held all the sex offenders. I was wondering what the hell I have done to deserve all this [bleep].
“It was the worst time of my life and I hated every single second of it.”
Paula was pregnant with Eddie Gilfoyle’s child when she died (Credit: Channel 4)
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
