Marie Patricia Wilks (30 March 1966 – 18 June 1988) was a 22-year-old seven-months-pregnant woman who was abducted from the hard shoulder of the M50 motorway and murdered on 18 June 1988. Her body was found two days later dumped three miles up the road, after a witness described having seen a silver-grey Renault 25 car parked there. In 1989, Eddie Browning, who had been driving a silver-grey Renault 25 that day, was found guilty of the murder at trial by a unanimous jury decision. A violent man with previous convictions for assault and having only recently been released from prison for aggravated burglary, Browning had stormed out of his home that day after a violent row with his seven-months-pregnant wife, declaring he was driving to Scotland – a route that would have naturally taken him along the M50. Dozens of witnesses reported seeing a blonde man in a silver-grey C-registered Renault 25 parking by Wilks and then driving off erratically and both the descriptions of the man and the car matched Browning and his vehicle. Several of Browning's friends and associates called in to report Browning as matching the artist's impression of the suspect and he was the only driver of C-registered silver-grey Renault 25s nationwide who could not be eliminated as a suspect, indicating that only he could be responsible. A tyre expert also testified at trial that a skid mark at the place the body was found matched a wheel on Browning's car.
Having failed in an initial appeal in which he complained that the trial judge had prevented the jury from convicting him of manslaughter and not murder (i.e. that he killed Wilks but that he did not intend to do so), Browning was controversially released in 1994 on a technicality. A police officer who had felt guilty at having driven past the scene despite apparently seeing the killer turn and park next to Wilks had undergone hypnosis to try and remember more of the car's numberplate, but the video of this had not been disclosed to either the prosecution or defence. It was determined that this 'irregularity' affected the conviction as he had given a numberplate different to Browning's, even though he still maintained it was a C-registered vehicle. The prosecution maintained the video had only not been disclosed as the man's claims were unreliable and he had unintentionally made up the evidence in an effort to be helpful, highlighting how he had immediately apologised and told police to ignore it. It was argued that there still remained sufficient evidence and witness sightings even without the officer's evidence to convict Browning but the judges ruled they could not be certain the jury would still have convicted Browning had they also seen the video and so ordered his release, although did not declare him innocent.
Browning was given compensation, although at that time all individuals freed on appeal were automatically given compensation no matter whether evidence existed to prove them innocent or not. In the years after being freed Browning was twice convicted of carrying a knife in public (the same believed used in the murder) and also for drunk driving and attempting to evade arrest, whilst also being arrested on two other occasions for allegedly attacking his wife with a chainsaw and for causing a car accident. In 2000, one of the friends and colleagues who had called police saying he matched the artist's impression in the Wilks case testified on oath at a trial that Browning had admitted to murdering the woman the day before he was arrested. Re-investigations of the case failed to identify any suspects other than Browning. He died in 2018 aged 63; police said there were no suspicious circumstances.
Background
Marie Wilks was pregnant and heading home to Worcester after visiting her husband at a Territorial Army camp. She was attacked while calling for assistance after her car had broken down, and her body was later found on the side of the M50 motorway.