The daughter of a convicted killer who appeared before Britain’s first public parole hearing on Monday said he has treated her and her son with “utter contempt” and should stay behind bars for her mother’s murder.
Causley, a wealthy businessman who ran an insurance company, was originally known as Russell Packman but he began an affair with Patricia Causley and moved her into the family home a year before his wife vanished.
He claimed his wife had left with a man in a red Porsche and had moved abroad. In 1989 he took his lover’s surname.
Causley’s daughter Samantha Gillingham was 16 when her mother went missing and she has long campaigned against her father’s release and for parole hearings to be in public.
Although Packman vanished in 1985, Causley—who then faked his own death in a bid to claim on his life insurance—was not convicted of murder until 1996.
His conviction was then quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2003, but he was convicted of murder again at a retrial.
On Monday, Causley said: “I lied. I’ve lied consistently. I’ve changed stories consistently,” but he still maintained he had not murdered his wife.
His latest version of events was that another individual, who he did not name, strangled Packman and then he disposed of the body by burning it and scattering the ashes on a golf course at Meyrick Park, near Bournemouth.
His daughter has spoken to The Epoch Times and recalled her “dysfunctional” family growing up and the mystery of her mother’s disappearance, which has hung over her for 37 years.
‘Tense Times’ Before Mother Vanished
Gillingham, who now lives in Northamptonshire, said: “We had moved back from Canada in 1983 and, looking back, the demise of my parents’ marriage was evident. By 1984 we’d moved again from Suffolk to Bournemouth. They were tense times.”She recalled the day her mother went missing in 1985.
“We returned home and now I know the scene had been set for my return. She’d gone. And yes bearing in mind the set-up I can see why she would. I had no reason to think anything was untoward.”
Gillingham said her father asked her to leave a few months after her mother vanished and she recalled swearing at Causley and his lover and walking out.
She said she lived under Bournemouth Pier for a few weeks and spent a year in prison, but in 1988 she got married and had a child the following year.
Years went by and Causley was found guilty of murder not once but twice, after his first conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal.
Gillingham eventually had her own child, a son, Neil, and in recent years they have both fought against Causley being released from prison.
Parole System ‘Not Fit for Purpose’
She claimed the current parole system for cases like Causley’s is “not fit for purpose” and that was why she had campaigned for Monday’s hearing to be held in public.“Victims need transparency to comprehend what is going on in these hearings that have such a fundamental impact on their life,” said Gillingham.
She said her father’s latest version of events was consistent with what he said at a parole hearing in 2014, and she believes he probably did dispose of her mother’s body by burning it and scattering the ashes.
Gillingham said: “We’re still fighting for justice and to the end my mother is not forgotten. Thirty-seven years on we are still trying to find her, or at least make sure my father’s freedom is not a given.”
She said she has been able to draw some positives from the experience.
Gillingham said: “It’s made me realise how strong I am. It’s also quite clear that my morals exist. Others involved will not be able to say the same. It’s hard work but it’s been the shaping and making of me.”
Nowadays she works as a construction site manager and she told The Epoch Times, “I’ve always been on a mission and I’m not shy of hard graft and I have my own ambitions.”
A panel of three parole judges are now considering Causley’s evidence, testimony from probation officials, and more than 650 pages of documents, including a victim impact statement, and are expected to make a decision on whether to release Causley in the New Year.
