Breaking news: Son of ‘Lady In The Lake’ killer loses his appeal against his late father’s conviction for murdering his wife with an ice axe and dumping her body 44 years ago
- Gordon Park was jailed for life in 2005 for killing estranged partner Carol in 1976
- Park later dumped Carol’s body in Coniston Water in the Lake District in Cumbria
- Her body was not found for 21 years when amateur drivers discovered it in 1997
- Two years after being jailed for life he hanged himself at HMP Garth in Lancs
The son of the ‘Lady in the Lake’ killer has today lost his appeal to clear his father’s name.
Gordon Park was jailed for life in 2005 after he battered estranged partner Carol to death with an ice pick in 1976 and dumped her body in Coniston Water in the Lake District.
Her body was not found until 1997.
But on Park’s 66th birthday in 2010, five years after he was jailed and two years after his first appeal against his conviction failed, he hanged himself at HMP Garth in Lancashire.
His son Jeremy continued to protest his father’s innocence, claiming he had unearthed fresh evidence which undermined the prosecution case.
But today the Court of Appeal ruled the conviction was safe and threw out his appeal.
Gordon Park (pictured right) was jailed for life in 2005 after he battered estranged partner Carol (pictured left) to death with an ice pick in 1976 and dumped her body in Coniston Water in the Lake District
When Carols’ body was found by amateur divers 21 years later in 1997, schoolteacher Park said: ‘Oh dear.’
In 2005 he was tried and convicted of murder at Manchester Crown Court and jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years.
Park maintained his innocence throughout the trial.
In 2018 his case was referred to the Court of Appeal after an eight-year investigation by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) uncovered new evidence.
Mr and Mrs Park’s two children, Rachel and Jeremy, maintained their father did not kill their mother and campaigned for a retrial.
After Park hanged himself his family applied to the CCRC – an independent watchdog that investigates miscarriages of justice – for a posthumous review of his conviction.
The Court of Appeal gave its ruling today.
Giving his judgement in the appeal against Mr Park’s conviction, Mr Justice Sweeney said: ‘We have no doubt as to the safety of the conviction therefore the appeal is dismissed.’
Henry Blaxland, QC, who represent the son, argued expert witnesses who claimed some of the injuries caused to Mrs Park could not have been inflicted by an ice axe were excluded from the trial.
During the trial, the prosecution linked Park to the crime by the knots used to tie up his wife’s corpse.
But the CCRC found none of his DNA on the rope.
It also said evidence undermining the claim that Park’s climbing axe was the murder weapon was not disclosed. Mrs Park, 30, vanished in 1976.
Her body was found by divers in August 1997, leading to the case being named the Lady in the Lake after the Raymond Chandler crime novel of the same name.
Park was charged with murder but the charge was dropped in January 1998 due to a lack of evidence.
He was re-arrested in 2004 and found guilty of murder at Manchester Crown Court.
The jury heard that the couple, from Barrow, Cumbria, had a tempestuous relationship.