Lady in the Lake killer ‘asked about Harold Shipman’s death’

Park’s third wife, Jennie, told the hearing she sent the official report into Shipman’s death to her husband in July 2008 at his request.

But he did not tell her why he wanted to read about Shipman’s hanging at Wakefield prison in January 2004.

The discovery of the report by prison authorities flagged up concerns for his welfare while he was serving a life sentence for the murder of his first wife, Carol.

Park escaped justice for nearly 30 years after he murdered her and dumped her body in Coniston Water in the Lake District.

He was found unconscious in his cell at HMP Garth, in Leyland, Lancashire, on January 25, 2010, on the morning of his 66th birthday.

Preston Coroner’s Court was told that a plastic bag was over his head and a cord was around his neck

The retired schoolmaster bludgeoned his wife to death with an ice axe in July 1976 and dumped her in the lake near the family home in Leece, near Barrow-in-Furness.

He claimed he had taken their children on a trip to Blackpool on the day she vanished to live with another man when she was aged 30.

Her body had come to rest on an underwater ledge and was found by divers 21 years later.

The 2005 guilty verdict brought an end to one of Britain’s most notorious unsolved murders. Park was jailed for life to serve a minimum of 15 years.

His supporters, including son Jeremy, who lives in Bradford, campaigned to prove his innocence. The inquest continues.