Louise Oakley was junior prosecution counsel led by Richard Whittam KC before Lady Justice Sharp, Mr Justice Sweeney and Mrs Justice May in response to the CCRC’s referral of the “Lady in Lake” case which was one of the UK’s longest murder enquires.
Carol Park went missing on 17 July 1976, and was never seen alive again by her family. In 1997, her body was discovered by divers in Coniston Water. She was nicknamed “the lady in the lake” by detectives. Carol Park’s husband (Gordon Park) was convicted of her murder in 2005. He appealed against his conviction, but it was dismissed in 2008. Just over a year later, Gordon Park killed himself on his 65th birthday in his cell at HMP Garth.
Gordon Park’s family applied on his behalf to the CCRC and following an eight year investigation they referred the case in 2018 to the Court of Appeal on the basis that there was a real possibility the Court of Appeal would consider the conviction to be unsafe. The CCRC cited the cumulative effect of a number of issues, including the non-disclosure of expert opinion undermining the prosecution’s assertion that Gordon Park’s climbing axe could be the murder weapon, new scientific evidence showing that Gordon Park was not a contributor of DNA preserved within knots of the rope used to bind his wife’s body and non-disclosure of information undermining the reliability of a prosecution witness who gave evidence of a prison confession and a renewed assertion that a rock found in the lake near Carol Park’s remains could not specifically be linked to rocks at Bluestones, the family home, should be reassessed.
The Appeal involved the instruction of forensic scientists, forensic pathologists and forensic odontologists and a review of legal, dental and medical records going back to 1976.