Suspicion for the attacks initially fell on eccentric agricultural worker and fisherman Alphonse Le Gastelois, who was arrested but released because of a lack of evidence.

His wife, Joan Paisnel, was the founder of a community home in Jersey where, at her request, he once played Santa Claus.

[4] In 1972 his wife Joan Paisnel wrote the book The Beast of Jersey (published by NEL Paperbacks, ISBN 0-450017-17-6).

After the trial, freelance journalist Alan Shadrake became Joan Paisnel's literary agent, and ghost-wrote a first person article with John Lisners which was published in the Sunday Mirror under the title "The Beauty & the Beast" with a photograph of Mrs Paisnel, in a ballet dance pose in white, and a police photo of her husband wearing the horrific mask which he wore when he kidnapped and assaulted his victims.

[5] Edward Paisnel returned to Jersey briefly following his release from prison on 13 July 1991, but moved away due to the strength of local feeling against him.