Following a highly publicised appeal for information on her whereabouts and intensive police enquiries, her former lover, David Gilroy, was arrested and charged with her murder.
[3] On 11 May 2010, the police started a high-profile public appeal for information, using screens erected in the centre of Edinburgh, playing footage of Pilley's last known whereabouts.
[5] On 23 June 2010, David Gilroy, a colleague and former boyfriend of Pilley's, was detained by Lothian and Borders Police under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 in connection with her disappearance.
[6] On 24 June 2010, Gilroy appeared on petition, in private at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, charged with the murder of Suzanne Pilley and various other offences relating to her disappearance.
[14] Mrs Gilroy could only decline to give evidence because the events she would speak to took place before section 86 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 came into force.
This act amended the law such that spouses and civil partners of an accused person in Scotland, are competent and compellable witnesses for the prosecution.
The court also heard that Gilroy had told police, that on the evening of 2 May 2010 he and Pilley had decided to split up and then took part in a Buddhist-style religious ceremony, writing their feelings down on pieces of paper and burning them.
[16] On 6 March 2012, the court heard from a forensic scientist, Kirsty McTurk, who told the trial that she had conducted a search for DNA in Pilley's workplace and in the boot of Gilroy's car.
He told the advocate depute that the scratches could have been caused by another person's fingernails, possibly in a struggle, and that this had happened around the time Pilley went missing.
[18] On 8 March 2012, the advocate depute led evidence from a Lothian and Borders Police constable who told the court how they partially traced a car journey Gilroy made to Lochgilphead on 5 May 2010, using CCTV footage.
On 9 March 2012 the Crown withdrew a number of charges on the indictment relating to an assault, a breach of the peace and a contravention of the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
The court heard from a number of witnesses who worked in the offices of Infrastructure Managers Ltd, who spoke to the fact that they did not see anything out of the ordinary at the premises in Thistle Street on 4 May 2010.
That Gilroy had then brought his car from home and put Pilley's body in the boot and the next day transported her to a "lonely grave" somewhere in Argyll.
He urged the ladies and gentleman of the jury to assess the evidence 'dispassionately', and said that it would be unsafe to convict David Gilroy of murder because the case the Crown presented was a circumstantial one.
[22] After two and a half days of deliberations, on 15 March 2012 David Gilroy was found guilty by majority verdict of the murder of Suzanne Pilley and of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
[23][note 2] On 15 March 2012 following the guilty verdict, Lord Bracadale adjourned the diet for background reports and remanded David Gilroy in custody.
The Lord Justice General stipulated that the camera should focus solely on the trial judge and court staff and that Gilroy himself could not be filmed.
Scottish courts have a long history of televising high-profile and important cases, where unlike England and Wales, photography and filming are not excluded by statute.
[28] On 13 April 2012 it was announced that journalists attending the sentencing of Gilroy would be allowed to use live-text based communication services such as Twitter to document events as they happened.
Unlike in England and Wales where the use of Twitter and related services is unrestricted in court, in Scotland, permission needs to be sought from both the trial judge and the Lord Justice General on a case-by-case basis.
On 27 April 2012, he lodged an intimation of his intention to appeal against conviction, under section 109(1) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, with the Clerk of Justiciary.
[34] In 2013 his lawyers attempted to have his case reviewed by the UK Supreme Court, arguing the police had acted illegally, however their arguments were rejected by all three judges.
As such there is no legal basis for COPFS to retain the productions relating to this case.”[37] The police subsequently announced that Gilroy's car, believed to be used to transport Suzanne Pilley's corpse, would be auctioned.
It was later reported that Gilroy had been attacked on his first day at HMP Shotts by fellow inmates and conveyed to hospital with a broken jaw after telling other prisoners that he would be released on appeal.