Daniel Morgan murder: a brother’s long fight for justice

Nearly 30 years ago, in May 1992, a young student wrote to his MP, Virginia Bottomley. “I am a man at the absolute end of my tether,” said the letter. “I have reached the end of my resources, emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually. Just over five years ago my younger brother Daniel was murdered … Since that day, my mother and I have spent almost every waking moment in a horrible and debilitating battle to expose the truth about why Daniel met such a horrible death.”

That young man, Alastair Morgan, is still waiting for an answer as to why Daniel Morgan, a private detective, was found dead with an axe in the back of his head in the car park of a south London pub in 1987. The inquiry into the murder that has cost around £16m and taken eight years is due finally to publish its findings on Tuesday after earlier plans for publication were halted by the home secretary “for national security and duties under the Human Rights Act”. The panel’s report will run to 1,200 pages.

It is only the determination of Alastair, a translator in Scandinavian languages, that has kept the story alive. He has consistently lobbied politicians and journalists, organised protests and petitions and been involved in a successful podcast and a book about the case, Untold: Exposing the Truth Behind the Daniel Morgan Murder. He and his family are hoping for some answers as to why no one has ever been successfully prosecuted for the killing, and why no fewer than five police investigations foundered amid allegations of corruption and incompetence.

Alastair’s persistence led in 2013 to a meeting with the then home secretary, Theresa May, who duly set up an inquiry to shine a light on the case. The panel was initially chaired by Sir Stanley Burnton, a former appeal court judge, but he resigned within months over differing interpretations of the inquiry’s role and was eventually replaced by Nuala O’Loan. Other panel members include Michael Kellett, a former head of the CID with Lancashire police, and Prof Rod Morgan of Bristol University’s criminal justice department.

The panel’s remit was to address questions regarding police involvement in the murder and what role corruption may have played, and also to look at connections between private investigators, police and News of the World journalists. Former colleagues of Morgan received substantial payments for work carried out for the paper.

Daniel Morgan attended agricultural college in south Wales, worked in sales in Scandinavia and as a travel guide before setting up the private investigation business that became Southern Investigations in 1981. His partner in the business, Jonathan Rees, had close links with police officers in the area, including a detective sergeant, Sid Fillery.

In March 1987 Daniel, then aged 37, married and with two young children, was found dead outside the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, London. At the original inquest, various theories were put forward as to possible motives, either connected with cases he was investigating or his relationship with clients.

“From the very outset, it seemed to me that a lot of red herrings had been placed in the path of the murder squad,” said Alastair Morgan. The original investigation was badly bungled: the crime scene was not properly sealed off, potential witnesses were ignored and leads not followed up. In a later inquiry, Rees and Fillery came under suspicion and the police duly planted listening devices, which led to the arrest of Rees for plotting to plant cocaine on an innocent woman on behalf of a client who was going through a divorce and wanted custody of their children. He was convicted in 2000 and jailed for seven years. Police also seized Fillery’s computer and he was convicted in 2003 of possession of indecent images of children and given a three-year community rehabilitation order.

In 2006, an experienced Scotland Yard officer, DCS Dave Cook, was asked to head a fresh investigation. He was presented with 125 crates of evidence, which would eventually increase to 650, with nearly 1m documents to be scrutinised. Morgan’s family were impressed by his commitment and felt that finally some progress might be made.

Cook was married at the time to one of the presenters of BBC’s Crimewatch, the former police officer Jacqui Hames. It later transpired that the News of the World had been hacking her phone as they were investigating a story that she was having an affair with Cook, unaware of the fact that they were, in fact, married. In 2017, she received substantial damages and an apology for the intrusion from News Group Newspapers. “To think that they undertook surveillance and harassment of myself and my family at a time when my husband was investigating a notorious murder, and in fact that company had links to the suspect in that murder, is nothing short of appalling,” Hames said at the time.

Following reports of the reinvestigation in the press, various people, including professional criminals, came forward claiming to have fresh evidence. Eventually Rees, two of his in-laws, Garry Vian and Glenn Vian, and another man were charged with murder and Fillery was charged with perverting the course of justice. But many of the informants’ claims were false and the entire case collapsed in 2011. The role of Cook in handling the informants was the subject of major criticism in court. Rees and the Vians duly brought a malicious prosecution action against the police and were awarded a total of £414,000 damages in 2019. In the high court judgment, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb criticised Cook’s behaviour, saying that “honest belief in guilt cannot justify prosecuting a suspect on false evidence”. Fillery won damages in a separate hearing.

Cook, who now lives in Scotland, has since suffered from severe anxiety and depression. He has responded robustly to criticisms of him in the report. He has also made a complaint against the Met police over their handling of the reinvestigation. “Whilst I do not, of course, suggest that my management [of the informants] was textbook or perfect, I reject any suggestions that [it] was ever dishonest,” he said.

“What I am hoping for from the report is vindication of what I have been saying for years – that corruption extended far beyond the first investigation,” said Alastair Morgan this week. He said he felt Cook had been handed a “poisoned chalice” and that police complaints procedures needed to be addressed. Years ago he had said that perhaps the only chance of a murder conviction would be if one of those responsible “found God” and confessed. “The same is still true today,” he said.