McCann Case : Cadaver In Evidence Without A Body Or Forensic Backup - TV cameras to capture moment killer is sentenced in British legal first

• David Gilroy convicted of murdering Suzanne Pilley
• Broadcaster: 'Will offer viewers a rare insight'

The sentencing of a man convicted of murdering a woman whose body has never been found will be filmed for television in a legal first.

Permission has been granted to record the judge’s sentencing of David Gilroy at the High Court in Edinburgh next week for the murder of Suzanne Pilley.

The camera will focus on judge Lord Bracadale and nobody else will feature in the footage except the macer and the clerk, a spokesman for the Judiciary of Scotland said. Gilroy, 49, will not be filmed.

 

 

'Rare insight': In a British legal first, TV cameras will film the sentencing of David Gilroy (left), who was convicted last month of murdering Suzanne Pilley (right)

 

Lord Hamilton, the Lord President and Lord Justice General, approved the application from broadcaster STV.

Gilroy, from Edinburgh, was found guilty on March 15 of murdering 38-year-old Miss Pilley.

 

He was also found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by concealing the office worker’s body and driving it to various locations in Scotland in the boot of his car.

 

Filming will start when Gilroy’s defence lawyer finishes the plea in mitigation at the sentencing hearing on April 18.

Following Gilroy’s conviction last month, Miss Pilley’s family pleaded with her killer to tell them where her body is buried.

Unable to grieve properly: Miss Pilley's parents, Robert and Sylvia (above), have pleaded with Gilroy to reveal where her body is buried

Miss Pilley’s elderly parents said they had been unable to grieve properly for their daughter since she vanished nearly two years ago during a routine journey to work.

The court heard Gilroy killed Miss Pilley in a jealous rage after she told him their affair was over.

Prosecutors painted a ‘compelling and convincing’ circumstantial case of a deceitful, controlling individual who lured Miss Pilley to her death in the basement of their office in Edinburgh before driving her body to a forest in Argyll where they believe he dumped her.

 Her final resting place is still a mystery and the landmark verdict is one of only a handful of cases in which a murderer has been convicted in the absence of a body.

'The development will allow viewers a rare insight into the closing stages of what has been a very controversial murder case'

                            Miss Pilley’s parents, Sylvia and Robert, were in court to watch Gilroy be convicted of murder and the second charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

As the jury delivered its majority verdicts after three days, Miss Pilley’s mother wept uncontrollably in the public benches, comforted by her husband.

The couple, who sat through every distressing detail of the 19-day trial, later called on father-of-two Gilroy to end their long torment and reveal where their daughter is buried.

However, Gilroy’s wife and family later issued their own statement vowing to stand by the killer and insisting he was innocent.

In a statement, which also thanked police and prosecutors, Mr and Mrs Pilley, both 67, said: ‘Finally, Suzanne has received the justice she deserved.

‘As a family we continue to struggle to come to terms with losing her. We have lost our daughter but her memory lives on in everyone who knew her.

‘Although the trial has ended, our ordeal goes on and we hope that one day we can lay our daughter to rest.’

Last night, an STV spokesman said: ‘This is the first time in the UK TV news cameras have been allowed to film a sentencing in a criminal court.

'The development will allow viewers a rare insight into the closing stages of what has been a very controversial murder case.’

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: ‘By televising this, people like Gilroy will face a day of reckoning. The public will see justice being done.’


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