Pilley accused ‘bombarded her with 400 text messages’ reading her e-mails’

THE man accused of murdering missing book-keeper Suzanne Pilley allegedly sent more than 400 text messages to the divorcee in the three-week period leading up to her disappearance.

David Gilroy, 49, is said to have sent hundreds of messages between 11 April, 2010 and 3 May, 2010, the High Court in Edinburgh heard yesterday.

A jury heard how mobile phone records showed a handset registered to Gilroy sent 64 texts in one day to a number registered to Ms Pilley, 38.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But the texts to Ms Pilley’s number stopped after she went missing on 4 May, 2010, while on her way to work in Edinburgh city centre.

The evidence came on the 11th day of the trial of Gilroy, who denies murdering Ms Pilley almost two years ago.

Desmond French, 36, told prosecution lawyer Alex Prentice QC how he worked alongside Gilroy and Ms Pilley at Infrastructure Managers Limited in Thistle Street, Edinburgh, in May 2010.

Mr French had responsibility for company mobile phones and he told Mr Prentice that Gilroy was issued a handset. After Ms Pilley’s disappearance, prosecutors obtained the records for the phone.

They discovered he had allegedly sent hundreds of text messages to a number registered to Ms Pilley but that communication between the pair stopped on 3 May. No calls were made and no text messages were sent after that date.

Earlier, a friend of Ms Pilley told a court how the divorcee feared that her lover was reading her e-mails.

Gayle Ann Hawkins, 42, said Ms Pilley was worried Gilroy was hacking into her Hotmail account. Ms Hawkins, who lives in Edinburgh, also said Ms Pilley had told her that Gilroy had accused her of seeing another man while she dated him.

Ms Hawkins told Mr Prentice that she had known Ms Pilley for 25 years before she went missing. She said Ms Pilley had started dating Gilroy in 2009 and that she had met them as a couple on about three different occasions.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Ms Hawkins told Mr Prentice: “She said that she had come home one day and saw David on the computer. It was later that she realised that he was looking into her e-mails.”

Ms Hawkins also said that Ms Pilley told her that Gilroy had accused her of seeing another man called Omar whom she had met on holiday.

The court heard how Omar was a “good” friend of Ms Pilley. She said: “David had pulled her up that she was still seeing this Omar.”

Ms Hawkins said that the pair had a “heated” argument over the claim that she was seeing someone else.

Eventually Ms Hawkins said that Ms Pilley had told her that she had split from Gilroy.

She added: “I spoke to her on the Friday before she went missing. She told me she had got through to David that the relationship was finished.”

Gilroy, of Silverknowes, Edinburgh, denies murdering Ms Pilley by means unknown to the prosecutor in Thistle Street, Edinburgh, or at another location in Scotland on 4 May 2010.

He has also pleaded not guilty to four other charges which allege he committed a series of criminal acts across Scotland between August 2009 and June 2010.

The trial continues.