Russell Causley: convicted murderer admits burning wife’s body by daughter in UK’s first public parole hearing

A convicted murderer has described how he burned the body of his wife in their garden while his daughter was inside their home, in the UK’s first public parole hearing.

Russell Causley became the first person in British legal history to have his parole hearing heard in public. He was handed a life sentence for killing his wife Carole Packman, who disappeared in June 1985 – a year after he moved his lover into their home in Bournemouth, Dorset.

The 79-year-old gave evidence on Monday, 12 December, in front of a three-person panel - including former judge Nick Coleman - from HMP Lewes, East Sussex. Members of the public, including Causley’s daughter Sam Gillingham, as well as journalists, observed the hearing via video link at a government building in east London. Causley has never told his family members the location of Ms Packman’s body.

He was first convicted of murder in 1996 but this was quashed by the Court of Appeal in June 2003, and he then faced a second trial for murder and was again found guilty. Causley was freed from prison in 2020, after serving more than 23 years for the murder, but was sent back to jail in November last year after breaching his licence conditions.

During the hearing, the convicted killer responded to questions for more than three hours about the disappearance of his wife, how he disposed of the body and his recall to prison. The Parole Board panel chair ruled that Causley should not be visible to the public as he gave evidence to a former judge, a judicial expert and psychologist.

He repeatedly admitted that he was a “proven, habitual” and “cold and consummate” liar, while insisting that at this hearing he was telling the truth and his mistress Patricia Causley had in fact strangled her. The panel discussed the many versions of the killing that Causley has given over the years, which included that he himself strangled Carole and told inmates he had gassed her underneath a plastic bag.

He has since denied both those versions, and claimed today that he did not murder her. The panel was told that police have said they have had no credible evidence for his latest account, while in the hearing Causley admitted: “I’ve lied consistently and changed stories consistently.”

He told the panel that within “seven or eight minutes” of hiding his wife’s body in his garage, he sat down and had a drink. He said: “I remember sitting there, there was no conversation, I just thought nothing has changed, the sun was still shining.”

He described how he drove to London the next day and visited Harrods and the Imperial War Museum, while his wife’s body was hidden in his garage. Their daughter Sam was coming and going from the home in Bournemouth, however Causley explained he wasn’t worried about her finding her mother’s body as the garage “was locked”.

Causley then claimed that he disposed of the body by burning it in a pit over three or four days. He said his wife’s body and clothes were incinerated in just four four. He told the panel: “I did it very quickly, it took three or four hours.P olicemen working at prison said it was impossible [to burn a body] and there would be lots of smoke and smell. I know that there was no smoke and there was no smell [as he burned Ms Packhan’s body].”

He added: “People on TV said it could not be done. I saw no remnants whatsoever of my wife the next day … nothing was left of my wife’s body.” Causley then said he dug the ash and soil into buckets and dumped it “at the side of the road or in hedgerows”.

Moments before claiming he was not “a wicked person”, Causley admitted that his daughter Sam had been in the house while he was burning his wife’s body in the garden.

He said that this “wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary” as he regularly made fires in the garden. When asked how his daughter would feel if she knew this, he said: “It would make her feel absolutely ghastly.” When asked by Mr Coleman if he had told the truth, he said: “I have told you everything I can.”

The parole hearing is set to last over two days. There will be a private hearing on Friday, 16 December, where information such as potential release addresses will be discussed. The panel will then have to make a decision within 14 calendar days.

Causley was initially sentenced to a minimum of 16 years’ imprisonment, however had ended up serving more than 23 years by the time of his release in 2020. He was released from custody after his sixth parole hearing, when he was deemed not to pose a risk to the public.

Causley said he spent time after his release reading, doing crosswords, walking and shopping and he got on well with staff at his bail hostel but “could have had a better rapport” with his probation officer.

He received an official reprimand for spending the night away from the hostel in August 2021 when he visited a friend in Watford but could not get a taxi home. The panel then heard about a series of suicide attempts that Causley said he made.

On Christmas Day 2020 he wrote a suicide note, and then in September 2021 he took a taxi to some cliffs before deciding that they were not high enough to jump from.

He was recalled to prison in November 2021 after failing to answer a phone call from his probation officer and was logged as missing after it was found he had disappeared from his bail hostel overnight without his phone or wallet.

Causley told the hearing he had gone to Portsmouth, where he went to college, and walked around the city before going to dinner. He said he spent £50 on a meal, and drank a bottle of wine.

After the meal he claimed he was attacked and robbed by three men after he walked along the promenade in the evening. Asked why he thought this happened, he told the panel: “I just think it was wrong time, wrong place,” adding that it may have been because he was an elderly man walking with a stick.

After the attack, Causley said he then lay on the beach until morning, adding: “I truly gave up, I was bereft.” The next day he went into a nearby shop and asked a member of staff to get him a taxi back to the hostel.

He said the details were “all a bit blurry”, adding: “All I can remember is laying on the beach shivering.

Although he reported the attack to the police and said he had bruises, officers did not record any visible injuries when he was taken back into custody and there are no suspects identified or lines of enquiry to pursue over the incident, the proceedings heard. He said he had a laptop wrapped in a towel, which he intended to post to a friend, which was not taken.

His prison offender manager said she saw bruises on him when he was returned to custody for breaching his licence. She also said his behaviour has been “exemplary” since he has been back in jail.

She said the account of the murder he had given to the panel was the same version of events which Causley had told her. She added that she thought his likelihood of reoffending was low.

While Causley’s community offender manager said she approaches his account with “a healthy cynicism”, and added that it is “not as credible as his story has changed over the years”.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, daughter Sam said she found the hearing “very draining but informative”, adding: “I found today helpful”. She said she was pleased the parole panel “interrogated” Causley, adding: “There were lies told in there.”

She said the accounts given by Causley were “difficult” to hear, adding: “It’s my parents, it’s my family. It’s hard work, it could be so much easier if only people had the balls to tell the truth. At least I can say I can hold my head up high and I’ve told the truth throughout.”

Sam described the parole process, before hearings could be viewed by the public, as “horrible” and that the opportunity for victims to take part in the system was “limited”, and “you do not know what anybody else is saying inside that room”.

“They’ve taken a really good step forward, however there is still further to go,” she said. Convictions take place in an open court and parole assessments for serious cases should take place in similar circumstances, she added.

The hearing continues.