Suzanne Pilley feared murder accused hacked into her emails

A FRIEND of missing book keeper Suzanne Pilley has told a court how the divorcee feared that her lover was reading her e-mails.

Gayle Ann Hawkins, 42, told the High Court in Edinburgh that Suzanne, 38, was worried David Gilroy, 49, was hacking into her Hotmail account.

Ms Hawkins, who lives in Edinburgh, also said Suzanne had told her that Gilroy had accused her of seeing another man whilst she dated him.

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Ms Hawkins was giving evidence on the 11th day of the trial of Mr Gilroy, who denies murdering Suzanne in May 2010.

Speaking on Monday, Ms Hawkins told prosecution lawyer Alex Prentice QC that she had known Suzanne for 25 years before she went missing.

She also said that Suzanne had started dating David Gilroy in 2009 and that she had met them as a couple on about three different occasions.

Ms Hawkins said that Suzanne had told her that she thought her partner had been accessing her e-mail account behind her back.

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She 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 Suzanne told her that Gilroy had accused her of seeing another man called ‘Omar’ that she had met on holiday.

The court heard how Omar was a ‘good’ friend of Suzanne’s.

She said: “David had pulled her up that she was still seeing this Omar.”

Ms Hawkins said that Suzanne and David had a ‘heated’ argument over the claim that she was seeing another man behind his back.

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Eventually Ms Hawkins said that Suzanne 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.”

Ms Hawkins also told the court that Suzanne had told her that Gilroy had handed Suzanne a “golden locket, a necklace” after she climbed a tree during a walk in wood land in Edinburgh.

Earlier, the trial heard from forensic scientist Kirsty McTurk, 33, who told the court that she conducted a DNA search in Suzanne’s workplace in the days after she went missing.

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The Scottish Police Services Authority employee said they were trying to find evidence that Suzanne had been present in the building.

She also said that she had conducted a forensic search of David Gilroy’s car boot.

However, scientists were unable to find any DNA evidence that the book keeper had been in either the boot of the car or the parts of the building that had been searched.

Miss McTurk said that when she opened the boot to Mr Gilroy’s car in the days following Suzanne’s disappearance , she noticed a “fresh smell” coming from inside the motor.

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She told Alex Prentice QC the smell could have been either “air freshener” or a “cleansing agent.”

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

Prosecutors allege that between August 24, 2009 and April 30, 2010, at various Edinburgh addresses, Gilroy illegally accessed Suzanne’s e-mail account contrary to section one of the 1990 Computer Misuse Act.

The trial before judge Lord Bracadale continues.

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