Gagged: Convicted British killer who protested his innocence is freed from jail after 18 years... on condition he doesn't speak to the media

With a paper-thin rationale for the gagging. They just don't want him to publicize a wrongful conviction

Convicted wife murderer Eddie Gilfoyle has been released from prison after 18 years - on condition he does not talk about the case. The gagging order on 49-year-old Gilfoyle, who has always protested his innocence, was imposed by the Parole Board.

He was found guilty of murdering his pregnant wife, Paula, 33 in 1992. She was found hanged in the garage next to the couple's home in, Upton, Wirral. She had left a suicide note which police believed was faked by her husband.

Gilfoyle was sentenced to life imprisonment at Liverpool Crown Court with a minimum term of 17 years and was being held at Sudbury open prison, in Derbyshire, before his release earlier this week.

A statement released on his behalf through a campaign group suggested his legal team would be appealing the gagging condition, which is said to include his family, supporters and lawyers.

It said: 'We are not able to provide a response because the Parole Board has imposed a condition on Eddie's life licence that prohibits him contacting the media either directly or indirectly whether this is regarding his release or his appeal.

'This is a matter that we will be challenging through the courts but until that time, we cannot comment.'

Her family described their 'shock' at the decision to release him. Her older sister, Margaret Glover, of Leasowe, Wirral, said: 'As far as I'm concerned, he's 100 per cent guilty and he'll always be guilty. 'He's going to be able to join his family, but my sister won't ever be able to do that again with our family.'

A spokesman for the Parole Board said he could not comment on individual cases but a condition banning prisoners from talking to the media would be imposed to prevent further offending.

He added: 'It is sometimes the case that one of the licence conditions is that the prisoner being released doesn't get involved with the media. 'If that is the case, the only reason for that condition would be to prevent further offending. 'For instance, it might be the case that if a high-profile prisoner talks to the media after he has been released, there would be issues concerning the feelings of the victims. 'There might be concerns about the reaction of the general public to someone who has been released from a life sentence.'

According to reports today, Tory peer Lord Hunt of Wirral, who was Gilfoyle's former MP, was also included in the media ban, as he had asked the Board if Gilfoyle and his team could be allowed to speak freely.

Last year, Alison Halford the assistant chief constable of Merseyside Police at the time of the murder, said she believed he had been the victim of a 'huge miscarriage of justice'.

Mr Gilfoyle's first appeal was rejected in 1995, and again in 2000.

EVIDENCE WHICH CAST DOUBT ON CONVICTION

Mrs Gilfoyle was eight-and-a-half months pregnant when her body was found at the couple's home in June 1992.

When family and friends described how happy Mrs Gilfoyle had been prior to her death, police became suspicious and launched an investigation, focusing on her husband.

Detectives believed Gilfoyle fooled his wife, 32, into writing the note and somehow persuaded her to climb a ladder with a noose around her neck.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 1993 for her murder, but has continued to protest his innocence.

Last year new evidence was unearthed which showed police notes from the time suggested that Gilfoyle was at work when his wife died.

The Times newspaper claimed it obtained notes of interviews with the officers called to the house on the day that she died.

They stated the doctor who declared Mrs Gilfoyle dead told police that she had died six hours earlier – when her hospital porter husband was at work.

The notes were not shown to the jury nor mentioned during Gilfoyle's trial in 1993.
Merseyside Police have repeatedly denied that they existed.

Original report here




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