Yachtsman Gordon Park, 60, battered his wife to death in 1976 and trussed up her corpse in a rucksack weighted with lead piping before dumping it from a dinghy in Coniston Water, a court heard.

Amateur divers discovered the remains by chance in 1997.

Prosecuting Alistair Webster QC told the jury at Manchester Crown Court: that whoever killed and disposed of Carol Park was ‘ a person who was thoroughly familiar with knots, both as a sailor and a climber, a person with access to a boat.’

Gordon Park denies murder. The trial continues.