He worked in his parents' business when he left school, and it was at this time that he met Carol. She was as he said working in the town hall in about 1962 or 1963, as Mrs. Farmer had told us. There was a period of six months he said before a romantic attached developed, as he put it in every sense of the word. They fell in love, they were engaged while Carol was at the teacher training college, and they married as I say, in August of 1967. They moved to Bluestones after the marriage. The house was substantially complete Mr. Park told us. As far as its structure was concerned, they had a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. The decorative work remained to be done. That house was of prefabricated construction, built to a large degree by Mr. Park himself, with assistance from friends and trades people for the more particular jobs.
Mr. Desmond Williams, you may perhaps just remember, one of the witnesses from Leece who had lived there slightly longer than Mr. Park, and said he was aware of Mr. Park doing some plumbing work at that house, but this seemed principally to relate to work for sheathing hot water pipes for insulation; a small point of evidence. I had forgotten that. I picked it out of my notes, I think at the weekend.
Mr. Park described the first two years of their marriage as very good. I think the expression used was loves young dream. They were very happy. They were young and without responsibility, except to each other, and there were no significant difficulties. So far as a family was concerned, they planned to leave that until the house was finished and they were more established, but then all that changed when Christine Price met her tragic end as I have already described, and they decided it would be the right thing and no doubt it is greatly to their credit that they did it, to adopt young Vanessa. Mr. Park told us that this was discussed with all members of the immediate family. He said that Mr. and Mrs. Price could not adopt; they already had three children, but he and Carol were free and they felt it right to step in. Mr. Park said that all seemed agreed about the matter, but when the matter came to court, they found that Mr. Ivor Price was objecting. Mr. Park said that previously Ivor had indicated his agreement when the matter had been discussed, and that the objection had been entered behind the backs of Carol and himself. Mr. Price put the boot on the other foot. He said that Carol and Gordon had applied to adopt the baby Vanessa, while keeping himself and his mother in the dark. It is probably one of those issues you do not have to decide to resolve the matters, but perhaps you should recall the background dispute about that point.