Last updated at 14:35, Thursday, 27 November 2008

LADY in the lake wife murderer Gordon Park has failed to convince top judges that fresh evidence proves he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
After a trial that shocked the nation, retired teacher, Park, from Norland Avenue, Barrow, was convicted of murdering his wife Carol by a Manchester Crown Court jury in 2005.
Park, in his 60s, was jailed for life - with a minimum of 15 years to serve - after the jury found he had bludgeoned his wife to death with an ice axe before dumping her wrapped and weighted body in Coniston Water, in 1976.
The jury rejected Park's plea that his wife - whose body was found by divers at the bottom of the lake in 1997 - simply disappeared from the family home whilst he and their children were on a day trip to Blackpool and he assumed she had left him, as she had done before.
However, at London's Appeal Court today, top QC, Simon Bourne-Arton, argued that fresh evidence from a leading geologist cast serious doubt on the "safety" of the jury's verdict.
He told the court that a critical part of the Crown's case at Park's trial came in the form of a rock, alleged to have been used to weigh down the body and which an expert said matched rock samples from the home the couple shared before Carol Park's disappearance in July 1976.
Mr Bourne-Arton put forward fresh evidence from geologist, Dr Andrew Moncrief, who said the rock was in fact "indistinguishable" from others found widely in the Coniston area and throughout the Lake District and was therefore "meaningless".
However, Lord Justice Keene dismissed claims that Dr Moncrieff's evidence showed there had been a serious miscarriage of justice in Park's case.
The rock, said the judge, who was sitting with Mr Justice Beatson and Mr Justice Macduff, was "only one element of a strong circumstantial case against Park".
Listing the damning evidence, the judge said Park had been a sailor since a boy with a good knowledge of the part of Coniston Water where his wife's body was found.
His experiences as a boy scout and sailor meant he had a command of a wide variety of knots, such as those found securing bin bags and a makeshift sack - made out of a pinafore dress - that were wrapped around Mrs Park's body, which was clad only in a short nightie.
There was also the evidence of an eye-witness who saw a man matching Park's description dumping a large package over the side of a white sailing boat on Coniston water in July 1976. Park then owned a white racing dinghy which he often sailed in the area.
He had been caught out in a number of lies during his trial; there were no signs of disturbance or break-in at the family home and Mrs Park's handbag, purse and rings - including her wedding ring - had all been left in the house.
There was a history of marital problems between the pair and both had had affairs during a period of separation in the year before Mrs Park disappeared, the judge added.
In the light of all those factors, Lord Justice Keene said he was "unpersuaded that the rock was a crucial part of the Crown's evidence at trial".
And, refusing Park permission to challenge the jury's verdict, the judge concluded: "We cannot see that Dr Moncrieff's evidence would afford a ground for allowing an appeal against conviction."

First published at 14:27, Thursday, 27 November 2008
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk