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Gordon Park: under review

02 September 2020 / Jon Robins
Issue: 7900 / Categories: Features , Criminal
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In the light of the latest failed appeal against the conviction of Gordon Park for his wife’s murder, Jon Robins reviews the evidence

Some 23 years ago last month the body of Carol Park was discovered by amateur scuba divers in a large bag at the bottom of Coniston Water in the Lake District.

The grim find took place more than two decades after the 33-year old schoolteacher unexpectedly disappeared having missed a family day trip to Blackpool. Her corpse was trussed up with 20 feet of rope and string in a foetal position and then wrapped in a bin liner, rucksack and a sack made out of a dress. This was all weighed down by lead pipe.

Just before the summer break, appeal judges dismissed a posthumous attempt to overturn the 2005 conviction of her husband for her murder. Supported by the couple’s children, Gordon Park had always insisted that he was wrongly convicted. Little over a year after a failed appeal in 2008, the former teacher took his own life

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