Suzanne Pilley trial: David Gilroy cleared of e-mail hacking charges

THE MAN who allegedly murdered Suzanne Pilley has been cleared of an allegation that he hacked into her e-mail account in the months leading up to her disappearance.

David Gilroy, 49, was acquitted at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday of accessing Suzanne’s Hotmail account before she went missing in May 2010 on a number of different occasions. The development came on the 15th day of the trial of Gilroy, who denies murdering his former lover in the Capital almost two years ago.

Office worker Suzanne had dated Gilroy, a work colleague, before she was last seen going to work in Edinburgh city centre on May 4, 2010. Her body has never been found.

Gilroy was standing trial on a total of five charges which allege he committed a series of criminal acts at different addresses in Scotland between August 2009 and June 2010.

But yesterday, prosecution lawyer Alex Prentice QC decided to withdraw three of these charges at the conclusion of the Crown case against Gilroy.

Judge Lord Bracadale told Gilroy that he was formally acquitted of the allegations as the prosecutors no longer wanted to pursue the charges. Gilroy was then formally acquitted of illegally accessing Suzanne’s Hotmail account on various occasions between August 2009 and April 2010.

He was also cleared of hacking into Suzanne’s account on a dating website called fitness-singles.com.

Gilroy was acquitted of sending e-mails to Suzanne from a false e-mail account that he created in the name of a man that the divorcee allegedly met at Crieff Hydro.

At the conclusion of the Crown case, Mr Prentice also told the court that he wanted to amend details of a charge which alleged Gilroy attempted to defeat the ends of justice, deleting references to Gilroy applying make-up on his hands to hide the true extent of injuries during a police photo shoot.

Gilroy now denies murdering Suzanne on May 4, 2010, at Thistle Street, Edinburgh or another location in Scotland by a means unknown to the prosecutor. He also denies a charge that, between May 4 and May 6 2010, he tried to frustrate the ends of justice by concealing the dead body of Suzanne Pilley within 11 Thistle Street, Edinburgh.

The trial continues.