Todays story is from Cardiff, the capital and largest city in Wales, a place with very good memories for me from my time as a student and always a great place to visit. Fairwater is a district of Cardiff and it is where author Roald Dahl was born in 1916. In fact, author doesn’t come close to who he was does it. Anyway….
When we pick up the story in 1990, 26 year old Geraldine Palk was living in Fairwater with her sister Alison and older brother Neil and for a couple of years Geraldine had worked as a shipping clerk for the company ‘Celtic Shipping’ in Cardiff Bay. Lively and outgoing, Geraldine had been planning to marry a long term partner earlier in the year, but the relationship had unfortunately ended in the April of 1990.
Since then, Geraldine had been enjoying getting out again and visiting pubs and clubs and meeting new people. On Friday 21st December 1990, the last Friday before Christmas, Cardiff was packed with revellers and hordes of workers enjoying their festive works night out. An opportunity for workers and colleagues to let their hair down and share in an end of year celebration is of course a popular part of the whole festive period for so many. Geraldine and around 15 work colleagues from Celtic Shipping were out in Cardiff that Friday night, and the majority of them had a great time. With that festive excitement in the air and the Fairytale of New York doubtlessly playing in every bar, Geraldine and her colleagues spilled into the Bank Wine Bar at 5:50pm, straight from work.
After a few hours here the group moved onto another bar – the Wine Press – and then as the night continued they decided to head to a club. At 11:40pm Geraldine and a number of remaining friends who had stayed out, arrived at Jacksons night club in Westgate Street. Continuing with dancing and sharing a few drinks together and plenty of laughs, the group were having a great time. Whilst in the club, Geraldine told a couple of friends that she was going to the toilet but would be back in a short while, and asked them to stay where they were so she would find her way back to them again. Geraldine though, never returned to her friends.
But you know how it can be at the end of a big night out, things change and people in your group change their plans and leave early. And so it was with Geraldine who at about 20 minutes past midnight, decided to leave the party and head home. Joining a taxi queue outside ‘Castle Cabs’, which was just across the street from the Jacksons night club, she spoke briefly to a friend she knew who was also in the queue. Geraldine told her that she wanted to head home as she was tired, having been out most of the day. When her friend disappeared in her own cab, Geraldine remained in the queue until she, along with two men and another woman, jumped in the same taxi and shared the fare for the short journey back towards Fairwater. It was now 12:45am. Geraldine asked to be dropped off a short walk from her house in Bracken Place, which was only around 250 yards away. Why is unclear. But whatever the reason, this decision was to cost Geraldine her life.
The following morning, a group of children playing stumbled upon the semi-naked body of Geraldine Palk who was lying face down in a shallow stream by the Fairwater Leisure Centre. When police arrived, even hardened detectives were shocked by the grisly scene that greeted them. Geraldine had faced the most brutal of attacks and suffered multiple stab wounds, with her throat having been cut and her skull very clearly fractured. Three days before Christmas, evil had visited Fairwater.
The effect on the community was profound. During a time when most people were excited and looking forward to a period of holiday and enjoyment, Fairwater became the unwanted subject of unprecedented press attention. At the forefront of everybody’s mind was of course Geraldine and her mourning family and friends, but also shared was a communal terror that someone capable of such an act was among them – and free to kill again.
But why had Geraldine been killed? A huge murder investigation was immediately launched, and on Christmas Eve Detective Chief Superintendent Phil Jones, who had only recently begun his role as the head of CID, laid bare the reality of what they were dealing with:
‘It was the most brutal and horrific attack I have investigated in my police career. It was just unbridled violence. The killer would have been heavily blood stained. The fact that she was almost naked suggests there was a sexual undertone to the attack.’
He continued that Geraldine had been beaten severely about the head and stabbed in the back a number of times. There was evidence that she had struggled for her life and resisted her attacker. ‘There are signs,’ he said, ‘to suggest that she was involved with the culprit in different parts of the school field, and that she was killed there before being dumped in the stream.’ The Police were desperate to hear from anyone that may have heard anything on the night Geraldine was killed; the attack had occurred very close by to houses and police were certain she would have tried to alert people to her plight.
And people did come forward. There was an eye witness account from a woman who was driving her baby-sitter home. She told police that she was driving along Waterhall Road at 01:10 in the morning when, as she approached Bracken Place, she saw what she described as a ‘lovers tiff’ up on the field ahead of her. A man had his hands on the shoulders of a woman and was shaking her, although not to the point whereby the witness considered stopping – she believed the encounter to have been nothing more than a slightly heightened argument.
Three other people also walked past the scene and so would have almost certainly witnessed it, but again thought it not serious enough to consider getting involved. A few moments later, people in nearby houses heard screams piercing the winter air – but rather than investigate further, probably put them down to nothing more than over exuberant Christmas revellers. Shortly after the screams were heard, a couple who were walking home from a night out saw a man running down the grassy bank and hail down a taxi before heading off towards Cardiff city centre. He had run from where it was thought Geraldine had been initially attacked.
On 28 December Neil Palk, Geraldine’s brother wept openly as he spoke movingly at a specially arranged press conference. The first of Geraldine’s family to speak publicly about the murder, he told gathered press and reporters that his sister was ‘idolised’ by her family, and she had bought them tickets for Cinderella as a special Christmas treat. ‘She was idolised by my children,’ he said. ‘She was well liked by everyone. A friendly girl, the life and soul of the party. My parents thought the world of her. She was their last child in the house. Boxing Day was the usual day the family would get together, we were going to Cinderella the Pantomime. Someone out there knows something. He’s going to have a wife, a daughter, a sister. Please, I’m begging you, please come forward and give us some information. If he’s still walking the streets he could do it again to your wife or daughter.’ He said that his parents were trying to talk about things but admitted that it was something that none of them could ever get over. How could they? A beloved daughter, sister and auntie cruelly snatched from them in the most brutal of circumstances a few days before Christmas. He finished by thanking the 130 officers who were desperately trying to move the investigation forward as quickly as possible. Detective Chief Superintendent Jones, also present at the press conference, confirmed that they had received a good response from taxi drivers and also those present in Jackson’s night club, but remained hopeful of more information coming forward. Whilst cooperation had been good in terms of people coming forward from the nightclub, police were anxious to trace the black and white Lada estate taxi which had been seen picking the man up who was seen having been ‘running at speed’ down from the direction where Geraldine’s body was found.
But it wasn’t just for witnesses to help with this. Council officials provided their support in this task, and managed to pinpoint a number of the 53 of these types of car being licensed on the streets of Cardiff. With the taxi’s of course, were a whole load of drivers that police needed to speak to – all 820 of them who were licensed in the city. Three council officials worked together with detectives across the Christmas holiday period in a bid to trace all of the taxi’s and drivers in the area, in the hope that someone may have a nugget of information that had so far eluded police. Everyone wanted this man off the streets as soon as possible. The level of fear that was felt on the streets of Cardiff and more pertinently Fairwater itself, was perhaps best summed up by a specific warning announced at the inquest into Geraldine’s death. The coroner, for South Glamorgan said: ‘In the middle of the festive season I think it is important that young women who may be at risk coming home from late night parties do take proper precautions in being sure that they are accompanied by responsible people to ensure their safety. Having viewed the body of Geraldine, and the shocking extent of her injuries, the coroner went further, saying: ‘I feel it should be said in the public interest that it is of importance that the person responsible for her death be apprehended as soon as possible.’ This was a message not lost on police or the public – the killer was clearly a very violent and dangerous individual.
The post-mortem was conducted by Home Office pathologist Professor Bernard Knight. Knight would later be involved in the Fred and Rose West case, and a whole host of other high profile investigations. He stated at the inquest that she had died from multiple head injuries, with a contributory factor being multiple knife wounds. She had in fact been stabbed 81 times and her skull smashed with a ‘blunt instrument.’ It was also revealed that Geraldine had been raped.
The scale of the inquiry was enormous, involving every police force in Britain. Some 3,000 men underwent DNA blood-tests, which at the time was the biggest of its kind launched in Britain. In its relative infancy, DNA testing was very expensive, but nothing was to be spared in this murder investigation. Forensic samples taken from Geraldine’s body showed that the killer was a man, and they were able to say that she had had sex 48 hours before her death, but as this man had not come forward, police had to suspect that he was her killer. Police worked on the case in the incident room with huge dedication, seven days a week, but the size of the task facing them was complicated by Geraldine’s outgoing nature and busy social life which was filled with friends and acquaintances. An example of the task in hand was portrayed by police when they revealed they had spoken to 1,800 people who drank at just one pub, which was Geraldine’s regular. But as well as this haunt, she also frequently visited many other bars particularly in the city centre, making it difficult to speak to everyone that may have known Geraldine or had any information that may have progressed the inquiry. Any man that had been associated with Geraldine in any way, be it friends, colleagues, relations, former boyfriends, were all asked for blood to see if any of them matched the DNA samples taken from her body. Every man that lived within half mile radius of the murder site was also tested. Unfortunately, despite the monumental efforts of so many people, progress seemed to stall and time drifted on.
On Thursday 14 February 1991 – just over a year following the murder – police took the decision to turn to the BBC programme Crimewatch where they broadcast an appeal and reconstruction following the last moments of Geraldine’s life. Everything that police knew about those last moments were recreated in the hope that it might bring forward further information that might help the investigation. The actress that played Geraldine in the reconstruction actually bore an incredible likeness to her, so much so that some of Geraldine’s friends went very pale when they saw her ‘being Geraldine.’ Expectations were high but sadly, Crimewatch did not yield the desired result.
The day following the appeal Geraldine’s sister, Alison, described the torment that the family had lived with in the year since her murder. She was in tears as she told how her relatives had been ‘absolutely devastated’ by the murder, saying: ‘I just don’t understand why somebody hasn’t come forward yet. If only they looked at my family over the past 12 months – it’s almost destroyed us. She was a wonderful sister and my best friend. As far as we are concerned, Christmas just doesn’t happen anymore.’ Alison also told how it was the family’s strong belief that somebody knew who had killed Geraldine and the offender was being protected. ‘We are just begging for someone to come forward with the vital piece of information police need. Somebody out there has got a heart.’ Heartbreakingly, she also told how Geraldine’s bedroom had remained completely untouched since her tragic murder – nobody had the heart or the will to change anything. Geraldine’s brother Neil tried to persuade his parents – Les and Cynthia – to move from the house with all the memories, but neither of them would entertain the prospect, and could just not bear to pack up her things. One can completely understand why Neil would have suggested this to his parents, after all, looking out from the house was the very spot where she had been attacked and killed – but likewise, it is also easy to see why they would rather stay as perhaps they felt closer to their daughter there. It is complicated.
As time continued to move on and Christmases heartbreakingly came and went, the Palk family nor indeed those involved in the murder inquiry, could forget the tragic and harrowing events from December 1990. As frustrating as this undoubtedly was, with the passing of time also came the evolution of forensic and DNA techniques. The police databank of DNA was increasing year upon year and the ability to use small samples in unsolved cases such as Geraldine’s was becoming more specialised.
And then, finally, on Friday 22 June 2001 – more than a decade after the murder – the breakthrough was finally made, some 130 miles south of Cardiff. A prisoner serving time in Dartmoor Prison was given a DNA test as part of a routine screening of prisoners. Incredibly – it revealed a match to samples recovered from the murder scene in Fairwater all those years previously. However, in the cruellest twists of fate possible, neither Cynthia or Les Palk would ever get to learn of the positive developments in their daughters murder investigation. On 8 June 1995 Cynthia, a retired nurse, had popped out to buy a pint of milk from a local shop. As she crossed Waterhall Road she was struck by a car and suffered internal injuries and fractures to her ribs and spine. Cynthia was taken to Cardiff Royal Infirmary but pronounced dead on arrival. The accident occurred less than 100 yards away from the spot where her daughter had been murdered four years earlier. In those four years, Cynthia had become a broken woman – forever haunted by the attack that had happened just yards from the family home.
After his wife’s death, Les Palk merely tried to live from day to day. He could never forget what had happened, firstly to his daughter and then to his wife. He admitted to friends and family that he knew he could never be at peace in this world and just over a year after the death of his wife, Les too was dead. Suffering from liver cancer, he had slowly deteriorated and died aged just 63.
Arriving at the gates to the prison, police from South Wales force swiftly arrested a 34 year old man named Mark Hampson, who was coming to the end of a four year stretch for assault. He was taken to Fairwater Police Station where he would undergo questioning. Detectives questioned him for more than two days, having been granted an extra 24 hours by magistrates. Then on Monday 25 June 2001, Hampson, from Taff’s Well near Cardiff appeared under a heavy police escort at Cardiff Magistrates Court where he was formally charged with the murder of Geraldine Palk and remanded in custody.
Following the charge, Geraldine’s brother Neil issued the following statement: ‘Our family have been informed by South Wales Police that a man has been charged with the murder of our sister Geraldine. It has been a harrowing time for us all and we are still struggling to come to terms with these latest events. We would like to thank the media for their co-operation so far and would ask that they continue to respect our wishes for privacy.’ Whilst it was of course a huge step forward, the Palk family knew that this would only be the beginning of a protruded justice process, and the likelihood of a harrowing trial loomed large.
Mark Hampson faced the charge of murder at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday 1 October 2002, more than a decade after Geraldine’s murder. A lot as we have heard, had happened in this time frame – much of it tragic – but the appetite to see justice served was as intense and anticipated as the early days of the investigation. The jury heard the extent of the horrific injuries inflicted upon Geraldine, before they were driven to the location where the attack had occurred. It was here, claimed Prosecutor Patrick Harrington, that Hampson had accosted Geraldine at the entrance of Bracken Place before threatening her with a knife and sexually assaulting her. After this, it was claimed Hampson then unleashed a ‘frenzied attack’ stabbing her more than 80 times. It was revealed in court that under police interview Hampson had told of a sexual encounter he had with a woman in the Fairwater area as he walked home. He claimed that the woman had bitten him in the genitals but added he had not sought any treatment. But Prosecutor Harrington accused Hampson of lying, as hospital records a showed the defendant had sought treatment for the injury on 23 December 1990, having told a doctor his wife had bitten him while he was in the bath. The prosecutor said this was a lie as Hampson did not have a wife and so this could not have been the way in which he had come by the injury.
Perhaps this retaliation, claimed the prosecutor, provoked the violence that he then unleashed upon his Geraldine. Hampson’s defence team tried to portray Geraldine in a less than wholesome light, claiming the 26 year old had had several casual relationships with men, and one night stands in the weeks before she had died. Quite what that has to do with anything at all I have no idea.
Under questioning from defence counsel Rees QC, Geraldine’s sister Alison told the court how she had ‘scolded’ her younger sister over her behaviour in the weeks preceding her death. She had expressed her disapproval after Geraldine had brought a stranger home to her parents house and spent the night with him in her bed. As we heard earlier Geraldine had been planning to marry earlier that year but the relationship had broken down. Geraldine was free and single once more and enjoying her social life and could spend time with whoever she wanted whenever she wanted, but it seems that to Hampson’s defence team this was the glimmer of hope they had in trying to exonerate their client. We can only imagine the distress this type of character assassination must have had on the Palk family and her friends. As the trial progressed, South Wales Police set up a community liaison group which was aimed at keeping the residents informed on the progress of the court happenings. Sensitive of community concerns, officers contacted group members every day with information about developments.
On 25 October, the jury of eight men and four women listened to the closing speeches by the defence and prosecution, and were asked to decide if Mark Hampson had been the man who sexually assaulted and murdered Geraldine. It was the defence’s belief that just because Hampson’s DNA was taken from Geraldine after a sexual encounter, it did not prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Essentially, they wanted the jury to believe that they had a chance consensual encounter, before someone else then came along and murdered her. Hampson’s defence barrister said: ‘Is Mark Hampson’s account of meeting Geraldine Palk and having the sexual activity he described with her the truth? If the answer is ‘yes’ that’s the end of the case. If the answer is ‘no’ you will probably find him guilty of murder.’ Patrick Harrington, prosecuting, advised the jury that Hampson had readied his story over time, in the event that he was ever apprehended. ‘Over ten and a half years he prepared for the day that the police would catch him,’ the court heard. ‘And having been arrested and interviewed he gave an account, but that account just won’t do.’
Hampson’s defence had claimed that the police investigation was fundamentally flawed in its assumption that the killer was the person that left the semen sample. However, the prosecution asserted to the jury: ‘We submit that you can proceed confidently upon the fact the sexual aspect of this case is inextricably linked with the killing.’ It was no extraordinary coincidence – because Hampson was the killer, they said. It was said that forensically, the chances of the killer being someone other than Hampson were a billion to one. Prosecutor Harrington asked the jury to look again at the signs of it having been a sexually motivated murder; her top ripped open, her knickers left in a field and her trousers torn from her body. This, they claimed was clearly a sexual attack. Prosecutor Harrington closed his case by referring to Geraldine’s family: ‘Thinking about Neil Palk and his sister Alison, they have sat in court within yards, we submit, of the man who murdered their sister. To say they have demonstrated outstanding decency and dignity is the most understated thing that could be said.’
On Monday 4 November 2002 the jury had reached their decision. After deliberating for over three days and having heard and viewed many distressing pieces of information and images, Mark Hampson was found guilty of rape and murder. On being sentenced to life imprisonment, he showed little emotion, in contrast to the Palk family who understandably broke down and comforted each other as finally, their precious Geraldine had finally received some kind of justice.
The Judge described Mark Hampson as a ‘vicious and wicked man’ telling him: ‘A lovely young woman who had everything to live for is dead, abducted at knifepoint just yards from her back door, from her parents and from safety.’
It emerged in court that Hampson had been sentenced to a total of more than 15 years in prison for various offences, and his criminal record included permanently disfiguring a man by slashing his face with a knife and attacking someone else with a brick. Charming. His criminal behaviour had begun as a teenager and he showed no desire at all to curtail it – this was clearly a man with a huge propensity for violence. The officer who led the South Wales Police inquiry, Detective Chief Superintendent Wynne Phillips, spoke about how the case showed the importance of sticking with an investigation. ‘Today brings to an end more than 11 years of heart ache and pain for the relatives of Geraldine,’ he said. ‘I pay tribute to their courage and resolve throughout these harrowing and complex police investigations. Their dignity throughout is a tribute to them. It is unfortunate that it took a long time despite our continued commitment – modern policing methods and new forensic technology were vital. The final message from me is that this case reinforces the theory ‘never give up. The public deserve this and more so the family of Geraldine. It is sad that Geraldine’s parents are not alive to witness some consolation in regard to their daughters tragic death.’
Having evaded capture for over a decade, carpet fitter Mark Hampson would not see out a great deal of his sentence. In 2007 he died in Wakefield prison, aged 40, having suffered from kidney cancer – this was almost 17 years to the day after he murdered Geraldine.
I know that you have been out for a night and for some reason, your plans to get home didn’t go to plan leaving you in a situation where you felt vulnerable. Or you saw someone who made you feel uncomfortable. I know I have many times. But luckily, you made it home. Poor Geraldine had the misfortune to meet a violent stranger when she was in a vulnerable situation on the night she lost her life.
I must comment quickly on the line taken by the defence at the trial. I find it utterly abhorrent that this strategy was followed when the legal team must have known full well Hamson was responsible. A legal person can give me all the spiel they want that this is what they must do but I call bullshit. Utter bullshit. After Geraldine’s family and friends had been so much to put them through this just wasn’t necessary.
As we have heard, the suffering Hamson inflicted on the Palk family can’t be overstated. One friend who played baseball with Geraldine, said how her relatives had never managed to recover from the loss of a much-loved daughter and sister: ‘She was just a very pleasant girl, very close to her family, which has been torn apart,’ she said. ‘He killed her family, not just Geraldine. Her mother, particularly, never came to terms with it at all. I’m glad that somebody has been caught for the murder, but really it’s too late. Her mother and father will never see justice.’ This undoubtedly further compounded the tragedy of this case. Perhaps the words of Wynne Phillips, the retired detective from the case, best reflect how the murder took multiple victims. ‘It makes you wonder if Geraldine had been alive today would her parents have been alive as well? And that is the consequences of these horrible, horrible murders. It doesn’t just take one life away, it takes a family away. They’ll never forget it and they have to learn to live with it unfortunately. It’s a life sentence for them.’ And surely this is the greatest tragedy of all.
And as we approach Christmas and the parties and nights out, all the memories will come flooding back. And at lunch on Christmas Day, the seat where Geraldine should be enjoying time with her family and friends will be sitting empty.
This story was released as Episode 418 of the UK True Crime Podcast, ‘A Random Attack’. The sources used were as follows:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/geraldines-killer-died-kidney-cancer-2200151
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2297329.stm
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/man-serving-life-geraldines-murder-2414372
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/man-is-held-after-dna-check-on-1990-murder-9180499.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/life-for-murderer-who-killed-ten-years-ago-126381.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2280470.stm
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/GERALDINE+PALK+TRIAL%3A+Heartache+for+a+whole+family.-a093970168
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Geraldine+Palk+trial%3A+%60WE+USED+TO+PLAY+HERE+WHEN+WE+WERE+CHILDREN……-a094007474
http://wolfiewiseguy.blogspot.com/2013/11/mark-hampson-death-of-scumbag.html
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/judges-reject-murder-appeal-2919906
BBC NEWS | Wales | Office party that led to tragedy
Family speaks after murderer’s death – Wales Online