Lady in the Lake row goes beyond the grave (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Lady in the Lake row goes beyond the grave

8:40am Thursday 28th January 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

More stories about: Lady In The Lake

LADY in the Lake killer Gordon Park, who was found dead in his prison cell on his 66th birthday, continues to split his family in two and divide opinion about whether he was guilty.

Park was five years in to a life sentence for the murder of his ex-wife Carol, whose badly-decomposed and trussed up body was discovered in a nightdress amid the murky depths of Coniston Water in 1997, 21 years after she disappeared.

But even in death - thought to be the result of suicide - the dispute over his 2005 conviction remains, with son Jeremy, his third wife Jenny adamant he was innocent, and one supporter pledging to fight on to clear his name, while Carol’s nieces Kay Washford and Claire Gardner say the retired teacher should have 'taken his punishment like a man'.

Mrs Washford, who was 14 when her aunt went missing, said: “We were very shocked at his death and send our condolences to his family, but we feel he has taken the easy way out. We feel he either couldn’t live with the sentence or couldn’t live with what he’d done.

“My dad Ivor Price (Carol’s brother) died two years ago and he died a broken man, his sister Christine was murdered in 1969 and then Carol.”

Mrs Washford, 47, who was “very close” to Askam-in-Furness Primary School teacher Carol but described her uncle as a “very distant, hard man” who was a stickler for routine, wants to know where her aunt’s ashes were scattered after her cremation.

“I am sure Jeremy and Jenny know and if they want to put all of this to rest, then I would like to say to my cousins Jeremy and Vanessa, ‘let’s get together, tell me where she is, so that we can grieve and pay our respects, because she deserves that.’”

But Rob Rode, the solicitor who acted on Park’s behalf during his ill-fated appeal in 2008 maintains he deserved a re-trial for his murder conviction.

He said: “I reviewed the evidence and felt his conviction was unsafe and I don’t think he had a fair trial. I know that after the appeal was turned down, he had been actively pursuing a review of his case with a view of getting it back to the court of appeal.”

To date, an online petition to clear Park’s name has been signed by 361 people - with seven people adding their names since Park’s death.

Catherine Keighley, mother-in-law to Jeremy Park, said: “With the family’s blessing, I will fight on to clear his name.”

Jeremy told the Gazette: “My whole family are completely devastated by the news and completely united and strongly believe he was 100 per cent innocent.”

In a letter which Park sent exclusively to The Westmorland Gazette from Manchester Prison in 2005, he maintained he was not a murderer and revealed his torment behind bars.

He wrote that he could not believe he had been found guilty, adding: “If I knew who (killed my wife), how, where, why, then I would have said so. I did not know then, I do not know now.”

Park was originally charged with Carol’s murder in August 1997, 16 days after a weighted-down canvas bag containing Carol Park’s body was found by amateur divers from Kendal and Lakes Sub-Aqua Club, but was released the following year due to a lack of evidence.

He was re-arrested and charged in 2004, and after a ten-week trial sentenced to life and ordered to serve at least 15 years.

Regarding his death, a Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We believe it was suicide. Mr Park was not on suicide watch. If he had have previously self-harmed or shown signs that he would self-harm, he would have been monitored.”

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)