INNOCENT Eddie Gilfoyle
The Official Campaign Website
Quotes
“For many years we have worked in the forlorn hope that the CCRC was capable of getting to grips with the implications of powerful new evidence for the safety of a jury verdict. This follows a shocking original police investigation, non disclosures and misjudgments that over many years prevented the dreadful, wrongful conviction of Eddie Gilfoyle from being reversed. The CCRC are clearly stuck in settled thinking that refuses to refer back cases that have previously been refused by the Court of Appeal. We are compelled to conclude there is no hope - no hope of establishing the truth for an innocent, wronged man and no hope of having a courageous, serious organisation capable of righting terrible historic wrongs.”
Source: Birnberg Peirce & Partners | Solicitors for Eddie Gilfoyle, 24th November 2017.
“The Criminal Cases Review Commission are not independent. They are the same as the Court of Appeal. They have become the Court of Appeal. They are so scared of the Court of Appeal they might as well be the Court of Appeal."
Eddie Gilfoyle
Source: November 2017.
“He was found guilty of somehow tricking his wife Paula into writing a suicide note, fooling her into climbing a ladder and then putting a noose around her neck without provoking a struggle. I don’t buy this prosecution theory for a second. And I’m not surprised that strong evidence has come to light that challenges it and undermines the evidence that helped to convince the jury. Eddie Gilfoyle has finally emerged from jail but he can’t get on with his life until his conviction is overturned, as I believe it should be”.
Daniel Finkelstein
Source: The Times January 18th 2014.
"They always come good in the end, these miscarriages of justice, and – inch by excruciating inch – the case of Eddie Gilfoyle is nearing the point where the Criminal Cases Review Commission would look foolish not to refer it, and the Court of Appeal mutton-headed not to quash the conviction.”
David Jessel (Interview 14th October 2013)
Former Commissioner at the CCRC.
Source: Published by Justice Gap 19th December 6th 2013.
"The latest documents show that mistakes were indeed made and that the blame can be squarely laid with the police. It is hard to see what else is needed for the case to be referred, as Mr Gilfoyle’s lawyers are asking, to the Court of Appeal”.
Source: The Times in Editorial 19th July 2012.
"Had the jury had the benefit of everything we had, I'm sure he wouldn't have been convicted, I am bloody sure he is innocent. I don't think she was murdered at all."
Graham Gooch
Lecturer in Police and Criminal Investigation at the University of Central Lancashire. Former Superintendent Lancashire Police in charge of the re-investigation.
Source: The Times Newspaper 1st March 2008.
"There has been a huge miscarriage of justice"
Alison Halford
Former Assistant Chief Constable Merseyside Police.
Source: The News Of The World 9th March 2008.
"It is my opinion that the suicide note was written, unaided, by Paula Gilfoyle, he said. That this intention was genuine is difficult to determine, but the way in which the note appears to be the culmination of months of thinking of various possibilities for dealing with her situation, and indicates so directly that Paula could see no other way, is consistent with a very real determination to kill herself."
Director of the Centre for Investigative Psychology.
The University of Liverpool.
Source: The Times Newspaper 25th February 2008.
Piper said the idea of her mixing up the two sisters, as suggested by the police, was ridiculous. "I have known them all their lives and, in the first place, they don't look alike and second, one was eight-and-a-half months pregnant," she said. "How could I be mistaken?" In his first police interview – before Piper came forward – Eddie Gilfoyle told police that his wife was intending to go to the post office that day.
Maureen Piper
Source: Speaking to The Guardian in 2005.
(At the appeal in 1995, Maureen Piper gave evidence that she saw Paula Gilfoyle in the Post Office on the afternoon of her death. Unbeknown to her she was providing an alibi for Eddie Gilfoyle).
"There is nothing from a pathological viewpoint for me to draw any conclusion other than the features of the case are entirely consistent with suicidal hanging."
Professor J Crane
State Pathologist and Professor of Forensic Medicine.
The Queens University of Belfast & Northern Ireland.
Source: Report for the CCRC 15th October 1998.
"I believe there is more than enough information and evidence, which have been put forward by a variety experts in this matter, to render the conviction wholly unsafe"
Dr J Bruce
Psychologist.
Letter to CCRC dated 30th December 2004.
Source: Report for CCRC dated 12th June 1998.
"Overwhelmingly a suicide. The only possibility is that this lady voluntarily let herself be hanged, which seems extraordinary to me. Medically speaking there's nothing about this case which prevents this from being a suicide by hanging."
Professor Bernard Knight
(Professor of Forensic Pathology).
Home Office Pathologist.
Source: Speaking to Trial & Error in 1996.
"Well it (ESDA letter) could have been written in early june."
Dr Audrey Giles
Forensic Document Examination.
Source: Speaking to Trial & Error in 1996.
"Taking the full correspondance into account, together with reports from witnesses, it is my opinion that the suicide note was written, unaided, by Paula Gilfoyle declaring her intention of taking her own life."
Director of the Centre for Investigative Psychology.
The University of Liverpool.
Source: Report 10th July 2000
"Taken as a whole the evidence gives me no reason to question the possibility of suicide, and provides several indicators that would direct me towards such a conclusion."
Professor R Glynn Owens
Professor of Forensic Clinical Psychology.
University of Wales.
Source: Report for the defence dated December 2004.
"In my opinion, in a suicide scenario, it is highly improbable that the deceased jumped rather than lowered herself from the step-ladder..."
Rodger Hope Ide
Consultant Forensic Scientist.
Expert in ropes and cordage.
Source: Report for CCRC dated 12th June 1998.
"(the Suicide Letter bears all the hallmarks of a genuine suicide note. A mood of self-blame prevails, and there is an undercurrent of helplessness and hopelessness.
...Paula was phobic about labour"
Dr J G Weir
Consultant Psychiatrist St Marys Hospital, London.
Expertise on suicide in pregnancy.
Source: Report for defence 7th June 1997.
"I feel embarrassed that the system worked badly in this case. I think its worked even worse in this case than the other cases that you've talked about, at every stage it has been defective."
Campbell Malone
Eddie's previous Solicitor from both Appeals.
Source: Speaking to Trial & Error in 1996.
"My overall feeling about Paula Gilfoyle is that though there are curious aspects, this undoubted hanging shows no pathological evidence of anything other than self suspension."
Professor Bernard Knight
(Professor of Forensic Pathology).
Home Office Pathologist.
Source: Report for defence 24th May 1993.
"Neither of us believes that his conviction can be regarded as safe or satisfactory. Neither appeal involved the wide-ranging consideration of the efficiency of the investigation by Merseyside Police."
Desmond Browne QC & Mathew Nicklin. Lawyers for Channel Four -Trial & Error.
The Times Newspaper 21st April 2008.