Veronica Anne Packman (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Thornton, c. 1945 – June 1985), known as Carole Packman, was a 40-year-old British woman who disappeared from her home in

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

, England in June 1985. Her husband, Russell Causley (né Packman), was found guilty of his wife's murder, but her body has never been found. On 12 December 2022, Causley had the first public parole hearing in British history. Samantha Gillingham the couple's daughter, who has campaigned for years to keep her father in prison, called the decision to hold a public hearing “momentous”. On 28 January 2023, Causley was controversially released from prison following a Parole Board hearing.

Disappearance

Carole Packman disappeared from the family home in

in June 1985. After her husband, Russell Causley, was caught faking his death off the coast of

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

as part of an insurance scam in 1993, he was convicted and jailed for fraud in 1995. After the trial,

Dorset Police Dorset Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Dorset in the south-west of England, which includes the largely rural area covered by Dorset Council, and the urban conurbation of Bournemouth, Christchurch a ...

re-investigated the disappearance of Packman.

Trial

Causley was convicted of her murder on 18 December 1996 and sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

with a minimum tariff of 16 years. The conviction was eventually quashed by the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

in June 2003. Causley was then found guilty of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

again at a retrial in 2004. Despite the absence of any body or forensic evidence, the prosecution sought to convince the jury, that Carole Packman was no longer alive, that she had been murdered, and that her husband was the killer.

Appeal and re-conviction

Causley appealed against his conviction in 1998, but the conviction was upheld. In 2003, his conviction was overturned following another appeal, and the judge ordered a retrial. At his retrial, he was once again found guilty of murder.

Subsequent events

Russell Causley became eligible for

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

in 2012. After several hearings, he was eventually granted parole in 2020. Packman's grandson, Neil Gillingham, spoke out against the decision as " Helen's Law" was passing through parliament during the review. Packman's daughter Samantha Gillingham has urged Causley throughout the years to reveal the location of her mother's body. Samantha Gillingham initially made calls in the media for a “No Body, No Parole” law in 2010, two years before Causley became eligible for parole. Neil Gillingham was critical of the Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Act 2020 legislation being passed through parliament and claimed it had been "watered down". Neil went further to say that in practice the law changes would not prevent convicted murderers from being freed despite their unwillingness to cooperate with the authorities. Various articles appeared in national press in January 2020, in which Neil Gillingham described " Helen's Law" as "a law with no teeth". This was later reiterated by

Joshua Rozenberg Joshua Rufus Rozenberg KC (hon) (born 30 May 1950) is a British solicitor, legal commentator, and journalist. Early life and career He was educated at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith and Wadham College, University of Oxford, where he took a ...

in November 2020 in a blog post titled "a law that makes no difference". In December 2020, the CEO of the Parole Board, Martin Jones reinforced Neil Gillingham’s earlier warnings in a Sky News interview. In December 2021, Causley was returned to prison after breaching his licence conditions. In January 2022, it was reported that he had been referred to the

Parole Board A parole board is a panel of people who decide whether an offender should be released from prison on parole after serving at least a minimum portion of their sentence as prescribed by the sentencing judge. Parole boards are used in many jurisdiction ...

once again. The hearing date was originally set for October 2022 following referral from Secretary of State for Justice

Dominic Raab Dominic Rennie Raab (; born 25 February 1974) is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Secretary of State for Justice, and Lord Chancellor since October 2022, having previously served from 2021 to ...

. The hearing date was given to the ''

Bournemouth Daily Echo The ''Bournemouth Daily Echo'', commonly known as the ''Daily Echo'' (a.k.a. the ''Bournemouth Echo''), is a local newspaper that covers the area of southeast Dorset, England, including the towns Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch. Published ...

'' before Packman's family was notified, for which the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

apologised. The BBC revealed on 4 August 2022 that Causley had been recalled to prison for "temporarily losing touch with authorities". Causley currently is imprisoned at HM Prison Lewes. The original public parole hearing date was postponed due to "concerns the prisoner's safety was at risk". The day before the scheduled public hearing, it was announced that the Parole Board was adjourned due to compelling evidence that Causley’s release address had been leaked publicly. On 12 December 2022, Causley attended a Parole Board hearing at which he admitted responsibility for his wife's murder. The hearing was the first in England and Wales to be held in public. On 5 January 2023 the Parole Board recommended he be released again.

Media coverage

The case was covered

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

's crime series '' The Investigator: A British Crime Story'' in 2016.

subsequently confirmed that the case remained open and that they would be examining new evidence presented by

Mark Williams-Thomas Mark Alan Williams-Thomas (born 9 January 1970) is an English investigative journalist, sexual abuse victim advocate, and former police officer. He is a regular reporter on '' This Morning'' and Channel 4 News, as well as the ITV series '' Expo ...

. The case has also been the subject of several other documentaries in recent years. Episode 6 of ''When Missing Turns To Murder'' covers the Russell Causley case and is available to stream on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Amazon Prime Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service from Amazon which is available in various countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services include same, one- ...

and

Apple TV An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

. Nine Lives Media produced ''Nightmare In Suburbia'': the case featured in Series 3, Episode 3 titled ''Killing the truth'' which was initially broadcast in March 2011. Both Neil Gillingham and Samantha Gillingham discuss the impact the murder has had on them. The TV show is available to stream on

. In September 2021, the case was again featured in Series 3, Episode 5 of ''The Killer In My Family'' series broadcast on

Discovery+ Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discover ...

. Both Samantha Gillingham and her son Neil Gillingham appear in the program giving in-depth accounts of the extraordinary impact the murder continues to have on their individual lives. Monster Films produced “Murder By The Sea” Series 8 Episode 4 which is scheduled to be broadcast on Tuesday 31st January on CBS Reality and again on Wednesday 1st February. Neither Sam Gillingham or her son Neil Gillingham partake in the documentary and were unaware of its production. Neil Gillingham has previously confirmed via social media that he is actively looking to produce a TV drama on the murder and that he intends on publishing a book in the future.

References