Lady in the Lake trial

Park's appeal began on 5 November 2019 at the Court of Appeal. On 1 May 2020, his appeal was rejected.

On 26 November 2014, it was confirmed that the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) was examining the verdict and new DNA evidence had come to light. Carol Park's niece has accused Gordon Park's family of 'clutching at straws' and has argued: "Gordon went to the High Court of Appeal and lost, so what makes them think after all this time they could find any information that could overturn the court's decision?" On 28 October 2018, the CCRC confirmed that they were referring Park's conviction to the court of appeal. The CCRC "considers there is a real possibility that the Court will quash the conviction in light of new evidence". The CCRC released the following findings:

On 25 January 2010, the morning of Park's 66th birthday, he was found hanged and unconscious in his prison cell in Garth Prison, and pronounced dead at the scene later in the morning. It is believed that a ligature was involved, and that Park inflicted the injuries upon himself. Park had not been assessed for the risk of suicide. His son, Jeremy Park, said that "we are all completely devastated and still believe his innocence 100%." Since his death, Carol Park's family has tried to trace her ashes.

In November 2008, the appeal bid was rejected by three judges at the Court of Appeal in London. QC Simon Bourne, representing Park, had wanted to call an expert witness to challenge geological evidence used at the trial. Lord Justice Keene said that the new evidence did not raise "a reasonable doubt as to the safety of this conviction", saying that the geological evidence was only a small element of the "strong circumstantial case against the applicant". The new evidence presented by geologist Andrew Moncrief concerned the rock found with the body, said to have been from the wall outside the Parks' house. Moncrief argued that the rock was "indistinguishable" from others in the area, and therefore "meaningless".

On 6 December 2007, it was reported that Clarion Solicitors, representing Gordon Park, said that they would launch an appeal. In a public statement, they said:

On 1 May 2007, No Smoke – The Shocking Truth About British Justice, by Sandra Lean, was published by Exposure Publishing. This book features the stories of seven high-profile convicted murderers, including Park, Luke Mitchell and Sion Jenkins. The book claims that the expert testimonies in the Lady in the Lake trial were flawed, that certain evidence was withheld, and that the sensationalist reporting of the press at the time influenced the court by persuading them that Park was the only person who could have killed his wife.

Bob Woffenden wrote an article for Inside Time, in December 2006, talking about the trial and its controversies. Another similar article, pointing out holes in the evidence, was published in the Sunday Herald, on 23 July 2006.

Gordon was again arrested on 13 January 2004. Police said at the time that the murder file had never been closed, and that the arrest followed new leads. These new leads were later reported to be a confession by Michael Wainwright, who claimed to have been a cellmate of Gordon's during his short prison stay in 1997. The police then revisited the site where the body was discovered, and found a piece of Westmorland green slate, a stone that matched the rocks that made up the wall of the family's bungalow. The case was brought to trial at Manchester Crown Court, and lasted ten weeks.

Joan Young, who was the only first-hand witness, is challenged in both articles. She came forward in 2004, claiming that she had seen someone push something over the side of a boat on Coniston Water. This testimony is challenged, because so much time has passed and the fact that her husband saw nothing. However, he claims to have been reading his paper at the time.

At the time of the discovery of the body, Gordon and his third wife, Jenny, were on a cycling holiday in France. They heard news of the discovery of the body, and are said to have seen footage of the police searching their house. On 24 August, they arrived home, and Gordon was arrested on suspicion of murder at 8.00am the next morning. He was charged with the murder of Carol Park, and remanded in Preston prison. However, after two weeks, his solicitors managed to persuade the court to grant him bail. On 6 January 1998, the charges against Gordon were dropped due to lack of evidence. The Crown Prosecution Service released a statement saying-

On 13 August 1997, amateur divers discovered Carol Park's body, clad only in a nightdress, 75 feet down at the bottom of Coniston Water. She was nicknamed "the Lady in the Lake" by detectives after the 1943 detective novel by Raymond Chandler, The Lady in the Lake. The body had been wrapped in a pinafore dress, a canvas rucksack and plastic bags, tied with several knots, and weighed down with lead piping. Her eyes had been covered by plasters. It was later reported that the body had landed on an underwater ledge, and had it been thrown into the water a few metres farther from the land, it would probably never have been found.

Also, it has been said that Young was too far away to identify the person in the boat, and that it couldn't have been Carol Park's body that was being dumped, as the Youngs were positioned so that the location where Carol's body was found would have been visibly blocked by an island. The article even points out that Young described a boat that appeared to be a cruiser yacht. Despite the fact that Gordon did own a large yacht in 1997, in 1976 he owned only a 505 racing dinghy, which he sold later that year.

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 and Gordon Park was arrested on suspicion of murder. Reputedly he said "Oh dear", after being informed they had found her body. The charges were subsequently dropped, but in 2004 Park was arrested again and found guilty of his wife's murder. The trial judge sentenced him to life imprisonment and recommended that he should serve a minimum of 15 years before being considered for parole. He was held at Garth prison, Leyland, Preston. In December 2007, he lodged an appeal against his conviction which was dismissed in November 2008. On 25 January 2010, he was found hanged in his cell, and pronounced dead at the scene.

Prior to her disappearance, according to her friends, Carol was feeling depressed. She had talked of tracing her biological parents, as she was adopted. On 17 July 1976, she went missing. Gordon claimed that she had left home for another man, and Carol had left their home in Leece twice before. It was for this reason, Gordon claimed, that he did not report her missing for six weeks. Carol was said to time her periods away from home to coincide with the school holidays. Gordon claimed that it wasn't until she didn't return in time to take up her job as a primary school teacher in September (the start of the school term) that he realised that there was a problem. At this time, he reported her missing via his solicitor, and her family was informed.

Park worked as a village primary school teacher, but was retired by the time he was prosecuted for the murder of his first wife, Carol. Park had two children by Carol, Jeremy and Rachael. Gordon and Carol also adopted their niece Vanessa when she was 18 months old after her mother, Christie (who was Carol's sister), was murdered by her boyfriend in 1969, aged 17. This was described as a "rare and appalling coincidence", but has been picked up on by the case for the defence since the trial.

The Lady in the Lake trial was a 2005 murder case in which Gordon Park (25 January 1944 – 25 January 2010) a retired teacher from Leece, near Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, was jailed for life for the 1976 murder of his first wife, Carol Ann Park.