Private detective’s axe murder: family ask Theresa May for inquiry

Home Secretary Theresa May was today under growing pressure to order a judicial inquiry into one of London’s most notorious unsolved murders.

Mrs May has delayed for 13 months a decision over whether to order a judge-led probe into the death of Daniel Morgan, a private detective who was found in a south London car park with an axe embedded in his skull in 1987.

In an unprecedented step, the victim’s family and one of the prime suspects today united in their calls for Mrs May to order an independent inquiry.

Daniel’s brother Alastair said: “Scotland Yard’s handling of the case has disturbed my family deeply from the outset.

“I don’t know of any case worse than Daniel’s, especially from the point of view of suspected criminality within the police. Theresa May’s handling of our submission has also caused us further distress.”

Mr Morgan was backed by Jonathan Rees, Mr Morgan’s former business partner at Southern Investigations, who was acquitted of any role in the murder in March last year and believes a judicial inquiry would help clear his name.

He said: “Certainly it would hold senior officers to account and expose the weaknesses and incompetence of the initial police investigation, rather than the continued suggestion that I and other police officers were involved in the murder.”

The calls follow yesterday’s Evening Standard disclosure that the Met had an undercover “mole” inside Southern Investigations for nine years, who told his handlers of alleged widespread criminality and claims he was astonished when police failed to act.

Scotland Yard admits the Morgan murder has been plagued by police corruption for 25 years and five major criminal investigations — at a cost of £30 million — have failed to achieve any successful prosecutions.

Following the collapse of the Old Bailey trial, a solicitor for the Morgan family wrote to the Home Secretary in August last year to say they had been “failed repeatedly by the criminal justice system” and warned her of “the repeated failure of the [Met] over the years to address the role played by police corruption in protecting those responsible for the murder from being brought to justice”.

Raju Bhatt, who was also a member of the Independent Hillsborough Panel which exposed serious police corruption, argued the only way for his clients to gain any form of justice was through an independent inquiry.

In a further letter to the Home Secretary posted yesterday, Mr Bhatt wrote: “[My clients] have sought to engage with you in a constructive and open manner, so your failure to respond in any meaningful way has served only to compound their distress.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “It is deeply regrettable that Daniel Morgan’s killers have not been brought to justice and we understand the strength of feeling this case has caused. We are carefully considering next steps.”