The disappearance of Edinburgh bookkeeper Suzanne Pilley shocked and intrigued the country.

No one had vanished quite so completely from a busy city centre street during rush hour.

The last grainy image of Ms Pilley placed her 30ft from their place of work, Infrastructure Management Ltd, in Thistle Street at 8.55am two days before the 2010 general election.

Prosecutors said Gilroy, 52, an ex-navy company troubleshooter described as a Mr Fix-it and a problem solver, had probably convinced his former lover to meet him at their workplace, but when they met he was rejected and he strangled her in a fit of rage.

It was also agreed by the majority of the jury he then hid her body in the basement, returned for it in his car later, parked the car outside the family home with the body in the boot overnight and next day drove to Argyll to dispose of the remains, although tests found no trace of divorced Pilley's DNA in the basement or the car.

A missing persons inquiry quickly turned into something more sinister and within a week police said they believed Ms Pilley had come to some harm.

Eight days later and just over two weeks after Ms Pilley disappeared police confirmed they were leading a murder inquiry.

When details of the pair's affair were revealed in the media Gilroy was pressed into a bizarre doorstep denial outside his home by a television news crew.

By June the focus of the investigation switched to where police believed Ms Pilley's body has been hidden at Glen Croe, a scenic spot adjacent to the Rest And Be Thankful route on the A83.

A police search involved more than 200 people over a total area about 100,000 acres of land in the Argyll forest.

On June 23 Gilroy was charged with murder despite no body being found.

Advocate Depute Alex Prentice QC said during his trial that when the individual strands of evidence presented were bound together they formed a cable and the strength of the case.

Lord Bracadale sentenced Gilroy to life imprisonment with a punishment part of 18 years, for the murder and for attempting to defeat the ends of justice

The sentencing was the first to be filmed in Scotland because of the level of public interest although the camera only focused on the judge and not Gilroy.