Mr. Park told you that he did not accept Mr. Lawson's evidence about this conversation.Mr. Park himself said he had only one recollection of the Blackpool visit, as to what they had done when they had got there. He said that they went to an exhibition relating to the TV programme 'Dr. Who.' It was a programme which they all watched frequently, a highlight of the week on a Saturday evening, which they tended to watch while eating fish and chips. He said the exhibition was the only reason for going to Blackpool, apart from the funfair, and he remembered that while they were at the exhibition, Rachel then five became afraid of the 'dalek' characters and their trademark expression. I will not try and imitate it! She had run behind Mr. Park to hide from the advancing dalek, so he said.
Anyway, Mr. Park told us that they would have returned from Blackpool either late in the afternoon or early in the evening. When they had got there, there was no-one at home. There was nothing untoward about the house, which was in its normal untidy state, as he put it. There was no blood, no sign of a forced entry and nothing was broken. He told us he had no recollection of his reaction. There was no note saying where she had gone. He said he was puzzled. He did not think that Carol would have gone shopping because he had the car, and if she had gone to the village shop, she would have been back within five minutes. He did find it unusual to find her rings lying by the small dressing table in the bedroom. She had never done this before, although she had in the past occasionally taken off the rings in a fit of pique or in an argument and slammed them on the table. She had however never just left them on view in the house and then gone. He said he was disturbed by that. He said he believed he had just got on with looking after the children. He had to feed them and empty the car, which were his first priorities. He would then have bathed them and read them stories and put them to bed. He then said he had time to think. By then she had gone or at least he was aware that she had been gone for a couple of hours. There had been no note and no telephone call. It occurred to him then that perhaps she was not going to come home. Having regard to the suggestion that she might have been ill, he said it did not occur to him that she might have been more seriously ill than she had expressed in the morning. He felt that if she had been ill and had gone somewhere for that reason, a note would have been left. He told you he did not think of asking the neighbours whether they had seen her or whether an ambulance had called or anything like that. He did not 'phone Carol's brother Ivor or her mother, but then he said Carol was not close to either her brother or her mother. His comment was "If you wait, you find out." He said they were not in the habit of keeping others informed about their spats. He said to you that he may have been guilty of self pity, and he said if he had acted sooner he appreciated now that she might have been safe.