Eddie Gilfoyle still claims innocence after 18 years in prison
Eddie Gilfoyle served 18 years for the 1992 murder of his pregnant wife Paula, but still insists he is innocent. Found hanged in their Wirral garage with a suicide note in her handwriting, her death was first treated as suicide. Channel 4's The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt? revisits the case on 2 July 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Paula Gilfoyle, eight-and-a-half months pregnant, was found dead in her Upton garage on 4 June 1992.
- Eddie Gilfoyle was convicted in 1993, served 18 years, and was released in 2010 while maintaining his innocence.
- Prosecutors argued he coaxed her into writing a suicide note and staging her death; he denies any involvement.
- Appeals and CCRC reviews have failed to overturn the conviction, though campaigners cite undisclosed evidence.
- A new Channel 4 documentary airing on 2 July 2026 puts the case back under national scrutiny.
What happened to Paula Gilfoyle in June 1992?
On the evening of 4 June 1992, Paula Gilfoyle, 32 and eight-and-a-half months pregnant, was found hanged in the garage of her Upton, Wirral home. A handwritten note in the kitchen was later confirmed by experts as her own writing.
Her husband Eddie had returned from work to find her missing. Believing the note meant she had left him, he went to her parents' house with his family, including brother-in-law Paul Caddick, a police sergeant, before they discovered her body.
Police initially recorded the death as suicide. Four days later, Eddie Gilfoyle was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Why was Eddie Gilfoyle convicted of murder?
At Liverpool Crown Court in 1993, prosecutors argued Eddie Gilfoyle had psychologically manipulated Paula into writing her own suicide note, then forced her to climb a ladder and place a noose around her neck. A jury found him guilty and he received a life sentence.
His defence highlighted a lack of forensic evidence linking him to the death. Campaigners and media reports have since argued significant material was withheld, including Paula's diary, which suggested she had previously attempted suicide and was disclosed only after a 20-year delay.
Paula's family have consistently rejected claims of innocence, believing Eddie concocted the plot. As her sister told the Liverpool Echo: "As far as I'm concerned, he's 100% guilty."
Has Eddie Gilfoyle cleared his name?
No. Eddie Gilfoyle served 18 years before his release in 2010 and has repeatedly challenged his conviction. The Criminal Cases Review Commission referred the case to the Court of Appeal in 1999, but the conviction was upheld in 2000. Further CCRC applications in 2003 and 2010 did not result in referrals.
Former Merseyside assistant chief constable Alison Halford and the Gilfoyles' MP Lord David Hunt have publicly questioned the conviction. Gilfoyle himself told the Echo: "I did not kill Paula, I did not kill my [unborn] child."
Cases like this sit among Britain's most contested convictions, explored further in our True Crime & Unsolved Mysteries coverage.
Why is the Eddie Gilfoyle case back in the headlines?
Channel 4's The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt? revisits the case in an episode airing at 10pm on Thursday 2 July 2026. Eddie Gilfoyle appears alongside his brother-in-law and legal experts to argue he was wrongly convicted.
Digital Spy reports the programme examines evolving understanding of perinatal mental health and undisclosed evidence. More than three decades after Paula's death, the Wirral case remains one of Merseyside's most bitterly disputed murder convictions.