Husband found guilty of plotting to kill Bedfordshire shopkeeper Carol Morgan in 1981

A husband has been found guilty of plotting to murder his shopkeeper wife who died in a "frenzied attack" more than 40 years ago.

Allen Morgan, 74, and his third wife Margaret Morgan, 75, were on trial at Luton Crown Court charged with conspiring to murder his second wife, Carol Morgan, on 13 August 1981, which they had both denied.

Margaret Morgan was found not guilty.

Carol Morgan was 36 when she was found dead at her store in Linslade, on the outskirts of Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, after a brutal attack.

Officers believe it may have been carried out with an axe, heavy knife or machete.

Her murder remained unsolved for several decades and multiple arrests were made but no charges were made.

Then in 2018, the cold case was reopened by detectives from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit.

Allen and Margaret Morgan were arrested last year while living in Stanstead Crescent, Brighton, East Sussex, and the trial lasted nine weeks.

During the trial, prosecutor Pavlos Panayi KC told the jury the couple had been having an affair for more than a year when Carol Morgan died.

After the case, Det Supt Carl Foster, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit, said: "Carol was killed in a frenzied and sustained attack, suffering horrific injuries.

"Carol was effectively erased from all memory, including those of her own two children, who have grown up without their mother. This trial has had a significant impact on them."

The prosecution told the trial that a woman called Jane Bunting, who was 17 at the time and is now 60, came forward to police in 2021 after she heard police were reopening their investigation.

Ms Bunting, now known as Jane Robinson, had a boyfriend at the time who was a known criminal called Danny Mayhew, the court heard.

Mr Panayi said that Margaret Morgan had brought Ms Bunting to a pub in the months before Carol Morgan's death, and Allen Morgan was there.

He added Allen Morgan, who benefited financially from Carol Morgan's death, had speculated whether Ms Bunting knew anyone who could help him kill his wife.

The judge said he would sentence Allen Morgan on 31 July. He was remanded in custody.

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