Merseyside Police Investigation

Police Investigation

Constable Tosney and the Coroners Officer Constable Jones were called to the scene, as was the CID, the police photographer or Scenes of Crimes Officer and the Police Surgeon.

Having read and taken charge of Paulas Suicide Letter and the Nigel Letter the Coroners Officer took it upon himself, to cut down the body of Paula and laid her on the cold floor of the garage. He undid the remaining rope attached to the beam and put it in his pocket. As a consequence no photographs of Paulas body hanging from the beam were taken nor did the CID have opportunity to view the body before he cut it down. The Police Surgeon did take two inadequate photographs of the body as it lay on the ground for teaching purposes. The actions of the Coroners Officer was in contravention of all the guidelines in respect of the police procedure at the time and consequently severely hampered Eddies attempts to prove his innocence.

Over the weekend following the death, the Merseyside Police Officers interviewed and took statements from a number of witnesses. As a result, the police postulated that Eddie had been pretending to Paula that he was on a suicide course at work and had asked her to write a number of suicide letters at his dictation. He then, on the pretext of his supposed suicide course, coaxed or cajoled her into taking part in some sort of suicide experiment in the garage at their home. This resulted in her death. Upon the discovery of the body Eddie produced to the police the alleged previously dictated letters, namely the Suicide Letter and the letter confirming her affair with the man named Nigel. (The Nigel Letter).

For the 'police theory' to work they had to say that the Nigel letter was false and was also dictated by Eddie. This was because the contents of the Nigel letter and the Suicide Letter and other notes written between Eddie and Paula, related to each other and they also related to what Paula's three friends had told them.

But, the Nigel Letter is not a letter declaring an intention to commit suicide. It is a letter from Paula to Eddie confirming that she intends to leave him for another man. It has nothing to do with suicide. Suicide is not mentioned or even alluded to. Therefore, how did Eddie get Paula to write the Nigel Letter on the pretext that it was going to be used in a project at work for his supposed suicide course? If the Nigel Letter was false, as the police alleged, what possible reason could Eddie have given to Paula to persuade her to write the Nigel Letter which contains intimate details of their relationship? Despite the 'police theory' postulated above not making sense, this is what the police and prosecution subsequently told the jury at the trial.

Post mortem examinations of the body found nothing suspicious - no drugs, alcohol, marks of violence or restraint. The remaining portion of the rope was still tied around Paula's neck. In cases of hanging, the ligature around the neck should be seized by the police at the post mortem as evidence. But because inexplicably, the police failed to attend the post mortem it was removed by the Pathologists Assistant and thrown away. This prevented the experts from establishing whether or not Paula had tied the ligature herself or whether the ligature had been tied by another person.

It is a matter of conjecture whether or not the police became caught up in the hue and cry from Paulas family and friends who were all saying that Paula would never have committed suicide and would have never betrayed Eddie by having an affair.

Nevertheless, the police became convinced that Paula was a most unlikely suicide and speculated how she could have met her death. They became convinced that Eddie had a hand in the death of his wife and set out to prove it.

On the 8^th of June 1992, four days after Paulas death, the police arrested Eddie on suspicion of his wifes murder. Whilst under arrest, the police searched his home and garage at Grafton Drive. The police found the beginnings of another suicide letter in a footstool in the living room which was written in Paulas own handwriting. Eddie was interviewed at great length and denied any involvement in the death of his wife. He denied any knowledge of the letter found in the footstool and denied telling Paula and others that he was attending a suicide course at work. He denied that he had dictated letters for Paula to write. Eddie was released from the police station without charge.

Eddie was also interviewed at great length by the police on two further occasions and was again released without charge. In these interviews, Eddie told the police that two days before Paula had died she had revealed to him that the real identity of Nigel was in fact her brother in law, a man named Peter Glover. Eddie had not mentioned this to the police in his previous interview because he had promised Paula not to let her family know of the affair and as Paula had now died he saw no reason to upset her parents before the funeral of their daughter. As far as Eddie was concerned his initial arrest was a mistake and he naively had the confidence in the police that they would realise this once they had completed their investigations. During these latter two interviews the police also told Eddie that they had discovered, indented on the pages of a notebook, the indentations of another suicide letter, again written in Paulas handwriting and which they had enhanced using the ESDA test method. This letter also related in content to the Nigel Letter in that it mentioned the baby not being Eddies. It also stated that the reason she was committing suicide was because the father of the baby she was carrying had left her. The police also told Eddie that they had made a further search of the garage and found a length of rope in the form of a running noose. The police called this length of rope Eddie's 'practice rope'. Eddie denied any knowledge of the ESDA Test Letter and of the 'practice rope'.

 Following his final interview and although the police once again released Eddie without charge a file was sent to the CPS for their advice on the evidence.

The inadequacies of the police action at the scene of the death, was highlighted in a report commissioned by the Merseyside Police shortly after Paula had died. The Humphries Report detailed the shortcomings of the initial response to the death of Paula and highlighted nine points that had contributed to an unsatisfactory result.