The family of a schoolteacher found guilty of the Lady In The Lake murder of his wife will bring a posthumous bid to clear his name at the Court of Appeal.
Gordon Park took his own life in his
prison cell in 2010 while serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife Carol, also a teacher.
Park, who always maintained his innocence, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court in 2005 and lost an appeal three years later.Posthumous appealHis conviction has now been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice. Three senior judges will hear the appeal, which is based on new forensic evidence and concerns about disclosure, over three days starting on Tuesday.What happened?Carol Park went missing from the family home in Leece, near Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in July 1976.
Park claimed she had vanished from their home to live with another man in Middlesborough, but the mother-of-three’s body was found by divers in Coniston Water in the Lake District more than 20 years after she disappeared in 1997.
Mrs Park’s remains had been wrapped in bags, weighted down and bound with ropes, before being dumped at the beauty spot.She had been wearing just a nightdress and detectives nicknamed her “The Lady in the Lake” after the 1943 novel by Raymond Chandler.
Following the discovery, Park was arrested and charged with her murder, but the case against him was dropped in 1998 on the grounds there was not enough evidence available at the time.
The prosecution had claimed Park had bludgeoned his wife with an axe, stored her body in a family freezer and then dropped it in Coniston Water using his boat Sail Fish.
Park went on to remarry twice and continued to maintain his innocence.
Detectives later uncovered fresh forensic and geological evidence said to link him to the murder and he was found guilty in 2005, bringing to an end one of Britain’s most notorious unsolved murder investigations.Following his death at HMP Garth in Lancashire, his family continued to campaign for his conviction to be overturned and applied to the CCRC.
Lawyers for the commission will argue that the safety of the prosecution against Park is undermined by non-disclosure of evidence relating to the murder weapon, said to be an ice axe he used for climbing.
They will also present new scientific evidence which they say shows Park was not a contributor to DNA found on knots of rope used to bind Mrs Park’s body, and argue that expert evidence which ruled out a link between a rock used to weigh the body and rocks at the family home has “renewed relevance”.Related... How Two Teenage Fugitives Wanted For Murder Led Canadian Police On A 2,000 Mile Manhunt Has Mystery Of Unknown 'Thai Bride' Dumped In The Yorkshire Dales Finally Been Solved? Manchester’s River Irwell Has Been Polluted With A Mysterious White Foam