Gordon Park, the Lady in the Lake killer, has been found dead in his prison cell.

He was found hanging in his cell at HMP Garth, Leyland, this morning, on what was his 66th birthday.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “HMP Garth prisoner Gordon Park was found unconscious in his cell at 8am on Monday January 25.

”Staff and paramedics attended but Mr Park was pronounced dead at 9.40am.

”As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will conduct an investigation.”

Park, a retired schoolteacher from Barrow-in-Furness, was jailed for life in 2005 for killing his first wife Carol and dumping her body in Coniston Water in 1976.

The mother-of-two's body was found at the bottom of the lake in August 1997, 21 years after her disappearance.

Park was originally arrested in 1997 and charged with his wife's murder but the case was later dropped.

More to follow.