Murderer Russell Causley faces first public parole hearing in UK history

A “ruthless and calculated” murderer who has never revealed where he hid his wife’s body is a “proven habitual liar”, the first public parole board hearing in UK history was told.

Parole judges are deciding whether Russell Causley can be freed from jail, in the first hearing of its kind not to be held behind closed doors after changes in the law.

Now 79, Causley was handed a life sentence for killing Carole Packman, who disappeared in 1985 – a year after he moved his lover into their home in Bournemouth, Dorset.

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. It is thought he killed her between June and August 1985.

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. He has never disclosed the location of Ms Packman’s body.

The hearing, which is taking place in a prison, began on Monday morning with relatives, members of the public and journalists allowed to watch the proceedings on a live video link from the Parole Board’s offices in Canary Wharf, London.

A panel of three parole judges questioned Causley, who could not be seen on the livestream with only his voice audible after a request was granted for him to remain off camera during the hearing. They are also considering more than 650 pages of information including a victim impact statement.

The parole panel chairman told Causley: “Your version of events has varied frequently over time.

“Your wife’s body has never been found. The precise circumstances of the murder are not clear.”

The parole hearing was told how Causley’s sentencing judge described how he “bullied and dominated” his wife for years before moving his mistress into the family home, adding that he was a “totally ruthless” and “calculated” killer.

Giving evidence to the hearing, 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.

But 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 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.

Causley initially evaded justice for the best part of a decade after the murder by faking his own death as part of an insurance scam.

The proceedings heard that he had taken a towel with him to Southsea beach on the day he says he was attacked, with a panel member suggesting he might have planned to do the same thing that night in order to escape custody.

Causley denied this, instead claiming a friend had posted him a laptop wrapped in the towel and that he wanted to post it back.

When it was put to him that a previous parole panel found him to be a “proven habitual liar”, Causley agreed that this was “a fair assessment”.

His behaviour was said by a member of prison staff to have been “exemplary” since he has been back in jail.

The hearing continues.