Daniel Morgan: Brother of murdered private detective hopes report will find ‘institutionalised corruption’

Family of investigator killed in south London pub car park in March 1987 by unknown assailant hopeful after Home Office agrees to release delayed review into long-standing cold case

Daniel Morgan (PA)

The brother of Daniel Morgan, the south London private detective whose notorious 1987 murder in a pub car park remains unsolved, has said he hopes the long-delayed report into the death will contain “a sizeable chapter on corruption”.

Despite five inquiries and an inquest, no one has ever been brought to justice over the father-of-two’s death at the Golden Lion in Sydenham, with the Metropolitan Police admitting internal corruption had hampered its initial investigation into the killing.

The report, finally due for release on Tuesday, has been eight years in the making after being commissioned by then-home secretary Theresa May in 2013.

It was originally supposed to have been published on 17 May, only for the current home secretary, Priti Patel, to withhold it for possible partial redaction, citing national security and human rights considerations.

That decision provoked an angry reaction from the Morgan family, who described it as “a kick in the teeth” and “unnecessary” and said the Home Office delaying publication “reveals a disturbing disregard for the public interest in safeguarding the independence of the panel and its report”.

An agreement was eventually reached that a small Home Office team could read the report in advance and last week it was confirmed that the full, unredacted report would be published.

The panel’s remit was to address questions relating to the murder including police handling of the case, the role corruption played in protecting Morgan’s killer and the links between private investigators, police and tabloid journalists connected to the story.

“I’m hoping to see a conclusion of institutionalised corruption,” Alastair Morgan told the PA news agency ahead of the report finally being made available.

“There’s been some very bad policing going on there. And not just at the beginning - it went on and on and on in one way or another.

“In the current situation I think it’s extraordinarily unlikely that anyone will ever be convicted of the murder because of the mess that has been made en route.

“Nor do I believe that any of the police officers who were involved in discreditable activity or activity that is criticised by the panel will face any disciplinary or criminal action.

“But I just hope that this situation, this kind of injustice, will be highlighted by the panel.”

A series of police investigations have been held in the three-and-a-half decades since Daniel Morgan was found dead, slumped beside his BMW outside of the pub with an axe wound in the back of his head.

In February 1989, the deceased’s business partner Jonathan Rees and his associate Paul Goodridge were charged with murder and Mr Goodridge’s girlfriend, Jean Wisden, was charged with perverting the course of justice.

But three months later, the case was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service and Mr Goodridge went on to sue Hampshire Constabulary over the charge.

Later, in 2008, five people were charged in relation to the case - Mr Rees, his brothers-in-law Glenn and Gary Vian and an associate, James Cook, were charged with Morgan’s murder while former police officer Sid Fillery was charged with perverting the course of justice.

But police failures in disclosing evidence and in the handling of key witnesses led to the prosecution collapsing by March 2011.

Eight years later, in 2019, Mr Rees and the Vian brothers were each awarded six-figure sums in damages after suing the Metropolitan Police for malicious prosecution.

It is estimated that the five police inquiries together have cost around £30 million, while, according to statements posted on its website, the panel itself - chaired by former Northern Ireland police ombudsman, Baroness Nuala O’Loan - had cost just over £14.1 million up to the end of 2019/20.

The Morgan family has meanwhile been tireless in its pursuit of answers, with Daniel Morgan’s son, Daniel Jr, writing in The Guardian last month imploring Ms Patel to “stand aside” and release the report, rather than intensify the grief of the deceased’s relatives.

Additional reporting by agencies