Profile: David Gilroy: The office odd-job man

DAVID Gilroy, 49, maintained a military bearing as his world crashed around him through the single word: “Guilty.”

He sat rigidly straight-backed in the dock and moved hardly a muscle as the spokesperson for the jury announced its verdict – that Gilroy had murdered Suzanne Pilley.

At the age of 19, Gilroy had joined the Royal Navy as an engineer and he served on HMS Brazen, a Type 22 frigate completed by Yarrow Shipbuilders three months ahead of schedule due to the Falklands War.

The ship was sold in 1994 to the Brazilian navy.

Gilroy’s naval career ended after 11 years, in 1993, when he took voluntary redundancy. He had been assessed throughout his career as being of very good character, and his efficiency rating ranged from satisfactory to superior.

He had met his wife, Andrea, while still in the navy and they married in August 1992. They have two teenage children.

The family lived in various places throughout the UK but set up home permanently in Edinburgh in 1995.

Gilroy was never out of work, finding jobs in a variety of areas before joining Infrastructure Managers Ltd, which oversees private finance initiative projects such as the construction of schools and hospitals, in January 2009.

He was an operations manager but gained promotion to Scottish regional operations manager, the post he held at the time of the murder.

His contract was terminated in July 2010.

In spite of his position in the company, in the office Gilroy was known as a bit of an odd-job man, somebody who would take it on himself to see to such tasks as fixing doors or attending to window security.

He took a huge interest in rugby, and sometimes would join colleagues at football games, following the fortunes of Hibs.