‘This is a man’s life you are messing with, if they had capital punishment, I would be dead,’ says Eddie Gilfoyle.

Convicted in 1993 for the murder of his wife, Gilfoyle has always protested his innocence.

• This is part one of a two-part interview between Eddie Gilfoyle and David Jessel
• You can read David Jessel on the case (They always come good in the end)

They always come good in the end, these miscarriages of justice, and – inch by excruciating inch – the case of Eddie Gilfoyle is nearing the point where the Criminal Cases Review Commission would look foolish not to refer it, and the Court  of Appeal mutton-headed not to quash the conviction.
David Jessel

Paula Gilfoyle – who was eight-and-half months pregnant – was found hanged in her garage in 1992.

The prosecution claimed that Paula Gilfoyle could not have committed suicide in this way on her own. They successfully argued that Gilfoyle had murdered his wife and tried to make it look like suicide.

Gilfoyle was released in 2010 after serving 18 years in prison.

Eddie Gilfoyle said: ‘I’m an innocent man, the evidence shows I’m innocent, how can I walk away?’

He claims the police controlled all the evidence and stands by the fact he would never have been convicted had all the evidence been disclosed to the jury.

The police and the crown are ‘playing with peoples lives’., aid Gilfoyle. ‘There is something seriously, seriously wrong that we can’t hold these people to account.’

‘The system has given me nothing at all over the last 20 years that gives me hope,’ and his faith in the authorities is at ‘rock bottom’.

‘They’ve all chosen to hide, it’s easier to keep me locked away then to admit that they got it wrong,’ he said.

Gilfoyle says he won’t settle until he has cleared his name: ‘You might say I’m free but I’m not, I’m a prisoner.

‘This is now Eddie Gilfoyle against the system.’

Thanks to Hardwicke Chambers for letting us use their premises to film the interview