Lawyers acting for Susan Edwards, the celebrity-obsessed killer portrayed by Olivia Colman in the Sky Atlantic drama Landscapers, say they may ask the Criminal Cases Review Commission to review her conviction after the discovery of “newly obtained information”.
Susan Edwards, now 67, is serving a 25-year jail term for murdering her elderly parents, William and Patricia Wycherley, and using their money to fund a £150,000 hoard of autographed celebrity memorabilia. Her husband Christopher, 68, was also jailed for his part in the killings.
New information prompts possible appeal
Today Susan’s solicitor Darrell Ennis-Gayle, of Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors, told the Mirror: “In light of newly obtained information, Ms Edwards’ legal team are seriously considering submitting grounds of appeal to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.”
Lawyers have not revealed what grounds would form the basis of any appeal, but Susan has always maintained her innocence and claimed she was abused by her father.
Bizarre murder plot
Susan was convicted of killing her parents in a £300,000 murder plot after a judge found her husband shot them at point-blank range with a World War Two .38 revolver. After the May Day Bank Holiday shooting in 1998, he wrapped their bodies in duvets and buried them in a 3ft grave in the garden of their home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.
Over the next 15 years, the couple used the elderly couple’s cash to fund a £150,000 hoard of autographed memorabilia from stars including Frank Sinatra and Gary Cooper. Susan even faked a 14-year correspondence with French actor Gerard Depardieu, telling her husband she was pen pals with him.
To hide their crime, Susan sent letters to friends and family and forged signatures on official documents to keep up the pretence the couple were still alive. It was branded one of the most bizarre murders in British history.
Claims of abuse and denial
Susan has always claimed it was her mother, Patricia, 63, who killed her abusive father, William, 85. She says she then shot her mother after the pair started arguing. In an exclusive interview from prison in 2021, Susan told the Mirror she accepted she should be in prison but denied Christopher had played any part in the shootings.
She said: “Prisoners say I should be proud that one of the world's best actors is playing me – I am proud. I hope she can help shine a light on what happened.”
She added: “I do think I should be in prison because I killed my mother with my father’s gun from the war and because I covered it up for 15 years and took part in an illegal burial. Also, I fraudulently took money from my parents’ accounts. However, I maintain that I did not kill my father and that none of this was premeditated.
“It literally happened the night of that awful weekend and I maintain that my husband Chris never took part in the killings. He did not know until the following weekend which is when I told him. I was in a real state and persuaded him to help me cover it up and that is what he took part in.”
Discovery and sentencing
After carrying out the murders, Susan and Christopher would regularly travel from their own home in Dagenham, East London, to the house to mow the lawn and clean the windows. Posing as the Wycherleys’ nephew, Christopher told neighbours and relatives their victims had moved away to various places, including Ireland, for the “good air”.
As Mr Wycherley’s 100th birthday approached, the Department for Work and Pensions wrote to him requesting a face-to-face interview. Susan and Christopher found the letter and panicked, fleeing London for Lille in northern France. Christopher called his elderly stepmother, Elizabeth, asking for cash and relaying the story about why they had fled.
He said Mrs Wycherley had shot her own husband, then Susan had shot Mrs Wycherley after being provoked. Instead of going along with it, Elizabeth called the police, who found the buried bodies.
A month after the murder investigation was launched in 2013, Inspector Rob Griffin received a surprising email marked high importance. Sent by Christopher, it read: “Later on today we are going to surrender ourselves to the UK Border Force Authorities at the Eurostar terminal at Lille Europe station.
“My wife is already sufficiently frightened. Please could you notify the UK Border Force at Lille Europe so that they may expect us.” When they handed themselves in, all the couple had on them was one euro, some clothes and a suitcase filled with their beloved memorabilia.
They were jailed in 2013 for 25 years each. A judge accepted that Susan had been abused by her father, but said she had plotted with Christopher to carry out the murder.
Mr Ennis-Gayle, who built up a relationship with Susan after first meeting her on the night she handed herself into police, appealed against Susan’s sentence in 2015 saying the judge did not give enough consideration to the abuse, but this appeal was dismissed. In a previous interview, he told the Mirror: “There are always two sides to the story.
“It's obviously awful what happened to the Wycherleys but Chris and Susan themselves are not without humanity. I think that comes across in Landscapers. They deny double murder, they have always done that and I believe they always will.”
