Daniel Morgan murder: Met apologises for ‘corruption’ in unsolved case

The Metropolitan Police has apologised to the family of murdered private investigator Daniel Morgan, admitting liability for an unsolved case “marred by a cycle of corruption, professional incompetence and defensiveness”.

An “unprecedented” £2 million settlement has been agreed between the Met and Morgan’s family over what is “the most investigated case in British history”, The Times reported.

Morgan, a 37-year-old married father of two, was killed with an axe in a pub car park in Sydenham, southeast London, in 1987. Despite five criminal investigations, costing about £50 million, no one has been successfully convicted.

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An independent panel review concluded in 2021 that the Met’s investigation into the murder was hampered by “institutional corruption”. The Daniel Morgan Independent Panel (DMIP), led by Baroness Nuala O’Loan, accused the force of putting its reputation “above the need for accountability and transparency”. In response the Met accepted that “corruption was a major factor” in the failure of its inquiries.

What has the Met said?

“Daniel Morgan’s family were given empty promises and false hope,” said Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley in a statement on Wednesday, “as successive investigations failed and the Metropolitan Police prioritised its reputation at the expense of transparency and effectiveness.”

Morgan’s family had been “repeatedly and inexcusably let down” by the force. “No words can do justice to the pain and suffering that has been a feature of the family’s lives for more than three decades,” Rowley said. Their “tenacious campaigning” exposed “multiple and systemic failings” in the Met.

Rowley took over as commissioner of the Met last September, promising “to clean up the force after a series of scandals”, said The Times.

In May, the force apologised to the Morgan family when documents were discovered in a locked cabinet in its Westminster headquarters, “a total of 95 pages of material that should have been disclosed to the panel”, according to The Telegraph.

Rowley’s words are “another damning admission of failings at the Met”, said Sky News, after its recent apology for the investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

What has the Morgan family said?

The family called the agreement “mutually satisfactory” in a statement on Wednesday, as it included an “admission of liability on behalf of the commissioner in respect of the conduct of his officers in response to the murder”.

But according to The Times, family members remain “disappointed” by Rowley’s refusal to admit that the Met is “institutionally corrupt”.

In response to the 2021 report, Morgan’s relatives took the Met to court, accusing it of misfeasance in public office and breaching the Human Rights Act. The two sides went through formal mediation this month, and the settlement will avoid civil proceedings.

Both sides hope the agreement will end the Morgan family’s “gruelling struggle”, said The Guardian.

But the family’s lawyer, Raju Bhatt, told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme that the nine Met commissioners since Morgan’s murder represented “consistent failure of courage and integrity”.

What happened to Daniel Morgan?

Morgan’s body was found by a BBC sound producer in the car park of the Golden Lion pub, where Morgan had met his business partner for a drink on 10 March 1987. He was “lying face up with an axe embedded in his head”, said BBC News.

His watch had been stolen, but “a large sum of money” was still in his pocket, along with his wallet. Notes he had been seen writing earlier were missing, the BBC said.

The Morgan family “believes he was gathering evidence to expose corruption in the Met Police”. His business partner would later go on to sell police information to newspaper groups and work for the News of the World, owned by Rupert Murdoch.

The investigation into Morgan’s death was “heavily criticised”, said The Telegraph. “The murder scene was not searched and was left unguarded, there were no alibis sought for all the suspects.”

Between 1987 and 2011, 67 people were arrested in connection with the murder, eight of whom were or had been police officers.

In response to pressure from the family, the government set up the independent panel in 2013 to review police handling of the murder investigation, and look into any connections between private investigators, police officers and journalists. It was tasked with looking at “alleged corruption involved in the linkages between them”.

The report concluded that Scotland Yard owed both the public and Morgan’s relatives “an apology for not confronting its systemic failures”.