Merrylands husband Nicholas Gilbert tells of finding dying wife Erin

Nine days after he found his wife Erin’s bloodied body on the bed of their western Sydney unit, Nicholas Gilbert still has no idea who killed her. But he claims police thought it was him when they placed him under arrest before later releasing him.

The husband of a woman found dead inside their Merrylands apartment insists he did not kill her.

The husband of a Sydney woman murdered on Easter Sunday insists he didn’t kill his wife as he revealed police arrested him over her violent death hours after he made the grisly discovery.

Nicholas Gilbert says he spent 23 hours in a police cell - still covered in his wife Erin’s blood from giving her mouth-to-mouth when he found her - while detectives launched a murder probe to find her killer.

Mr Gilbert says his wife, a former aged care nurse, was home alone on the evening of April 9, when someone went inside their Merrylands unit while he was at a mate’s place, and stabbed her multiple times in the head.

Sitting in the same room in which he discovered his wife’s body nine days ago, Mr Gilbert, 38, told The Daily Telegraph yesterday that, in the hours after the murder, police thought he was the killer.

“I’m sitting there in the cop station thinking ‘I’m helping them catch who just killed my wife, I’ve still got her blood all over me’ … and they say ‘You’re being arrested and detained for the murder of Erin Gilbert’,” Mr Gilbert said.

Nicholas Gilbert, the husband of murder victim Erin Gilbert, back inside the unit she died in at Merrylands. Picture: John Grainger

“I nearly f**king collapsed … I didn’t kill my wife.”

But a short time later, Mr Gilbert said another officer told him he was ‘right to go home’.

Mr Gilbert denies ever harming his wife.

He says the couple, who married two years ago, battled with drug addiction which worsened shortly before Mrs Gilbert’s death, but says they had plans to go to rehab and ‘get clean’.

The night of Mrs Gilbert’s killing, Mr Gilbert said he was at his mate Benny’s house.

He and Mrs Gilbert, 42, ‘didn’t do much’ earlier that Sunday, as his wife was struggling with depression and didn’t like to socialise or leave the house.

Erin and Nicholas Gilbert on their wedding day. Picture: Facebook

When he got home around 11.30pm, Mr Gilbert said he’d lost his house keys, so used a rubbish bin to climb onto the first floor balcony and access their unit from an open door.

“I came inside, everything was normal … then I went into the bedroom and Erin’s lying on the mattress on the floor, covered in blood,” he said.

“I just didn’t know what to do … I grabbed my phone out and pressed the call button and it brought up the last person I’d rung, and that was Benny.

“I’m like ‘Benny what do I do? I think Erin’s dying, help me, help me, help me’.

“He said ‘Have you called the ambulance?’... So I hung up and called them.”

NSW Police Forensics Unit dusting for prints at the apartment after Ms Gilbert was found dead. Mr Gilbert found her body. Picture: Dylan Coker

But in Mr Gilbert’s panic, he says he was mistakenly put through to the wrong call centre and not NSW Ambulance.

“Someone was speaking Chinese on the end of the phone, I was panicking and stressing,” Mr Gilbert said.

“Benny comes and sees Erin and says ‘She’s moving, she’s moving’ ... so I tried again to resuscitate her.

“I’m pushing her chest saying ‘Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave me’.”

Paramedics arrived and took over CPR, but Mrs Gilbert died at the scene.

Now Mr Gilbert just wants to know who killed his wife.

.He says with all the CCTV in the streets around his house, someone must have seen something.

The couple together in happier times.

Ms Gilbert died of her injuries

“She knew not to let random people in ... if someone comes around and I’m not home, Erin would tell them to come back in an hour,” he said.

“I’m a paranoid sort of husband ... she spends all her time with me. I don’t need other blokes coming round and hanging out with her when I’m not there.”

He remembered a fight his wife had with a friend a week before her death, which he reported to detectives investigating her death.

Mr Gilbert denied the pair had a drug debt or owed money to dealers.

“Erin’s been adamant ... she doesn’t want us getting in debt with people,” he said.

The Gilberts had undergone a government-funded unsuccessful round of IVF in the hope of having a baby, which Mr Gilbert says mentally and emotionally affected his wife more than they both expected.

Mr Gilbert claims he hasn’t been able to reach his wife’s family. Picture: John Grainger

“Erin took it really hard … she got depression and that, it really messed with her.”

Mr Gilbert said he’s tried to contact his wife’s parents since her death, but hasn’t been able to reach them.

“I don’t know when her funeral will be or anything … I just don’t know,” he said.

He says he feels like a ‘suspect’ with little information from police.

“Since they dropped me home that night, I haven’t seen the police except the other day they gave me a mobile phone and $50 to get a sim card.”

Mr Gilbert said police had seized the mobile phone he and his wife shared, his electric bike, wedding ring and necklace as part of their investigation.

NSW Police confirmed a 38-year-old man was arrested at the scene and assisted detectives with their inquiries before being released pending further inquiries.