The nieces of ‘Lady in the Lake’ victim Carol Park have begged the family of the husband who killed her not to appeal his conviction again.
Gordon Park was convicted in 2005 of murdering wife Carol in 1976 and dumping her body in Coniston water in Cumbria.
Park died in Garth prison, near Leyland, in January 2010, on his 66th birthday.
An inquest at Preston Coroner’s Court ruled this week that he had killed himself. Park, who had continued to protest his innocence, had lost an appeal in 2008 against his conviction, heard at the Court of Appeal.
The inquest heard Park was pinning his hopes on having his case heard before the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), before his death.
Carol Park’s nieces, Kay Washford and Claire Gardner, said they hoped Park’s supporters would not to continue to press for his name to be cleared posthumously, as it caused great upset to their family.
Kay, 50, who lives in Buckshaw Village near Leyland, said: “I know they have the right man.
“I cannot understand why they are still trying to get it overturned.
“They are clutching at straws and putting our family through hell. It brings it all back.
“I do feel very upset for his side of the family - at the end of the day, they have lost a husband and a father.
“But my sister Claire and I will carry on fighting to make sure (the verdict) is not overturned.”
Kay and Claire, 44, of Walton-le-Dale, said their late parents, Ivor and Maureen Price, had fought tirelessly to to see Gordon Park convicted and kept in prison.
Kay said: “My dad died a couple of years before Park killed himself.
“My father believed he was a guilty man.
“He would be so upset if he knew Park took the easy way out and that his family are trying to overturn the conviction again.
“I was only young when my auntie went missing but I still remember her.”
Park’s third wife Jennifer, who visited him every week in prison for five years, gave evidence at the inquest this week.
She told the court he had become upset when he lost the Court of Appeal hearing, and that a possible review with the CCRC was his “only hope.”
Park had denied killing Carol, claiming he was on a day trip to Blackpool with their children on the day she vanished.
Her body was found in Coniston by amateur divers 21 years later and Park was eventually convicted following a trial in Manchester in 2005.
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