Daniel Morgan: Met Police find papers relating to unsolved murder 'in locked cabinet'
Geraint Vincent reports on the latest development in the case
Documents related to the unsolved murder of private detective Daniel Morgan 36 years ago have been found in a "locked cabinet" at New Scotland Yard.
A total of 95 pages of material was found in January in a cabinet that the Met said has not been used for years.
Some of this material should have been disclosed to the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel (DMIP) which published its final report in June 2021, the police said.
A further 71 pages were identified that would have been provided to His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) as part of their subsequent inspection.
Mr Morgan's brother, Alastair Morgan, told ITV News London he learned about the discovery from a journalist four months after the Met found them in a secure storage.
Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray said it was "unacceptable and deeply regrettable" as she apologised to Mr Morgan's family.
“We are working to understand what has taken place and any impact. We apologise to the family of Daniel Morgan and to the Panel.”
The Met said its assessment found there are no evidential documents that relate to criminal investigations into the murder.
The force has written to the family of Mr Morgan and Baroness Nuala O’Loan to explain what they believe to have happened and outline next steps.
Alastair Morgan said he could not forgive the Met for this latest failure.
"It's just words," he told ITV News London in response to the apology from the force.
Alastair believes the murder of his brother will never be solved. He said the case had been "blown by the police."
"My previous solicitor said that the last case collapsed 'under the weight of previous corruption'," Alastair said. Mr Morgan, a private detective from Monmouthshire, was killed with an axe in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham on March 10 1987, and a string of unsuccessful investigations into his death have been mired with claims of corruption.
An independent panel set up to look into the case published a scathing report in June last year in which it accused the Met of “a form of institutional corruption” for concealing or denying failings over the unsolved murder.
Despite five police enquiries, the case remains one of the longest unsolved murder cases on Scotland Yard's books, and the force has admitted that the first inquiry into the killing was hampered by police corruption.
In a statement, Mr Morgan's family said: “We, the family of Daniel Morgan, are not surprised by this latest revelation concerning the Met and its handling of this whole sorry saga over the 36 years since Daniel’s murder in March 1987."
“We were informed last night – by way of a letter from Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray – that these documents had been ‘stored in a locked cabinet at New Scotland Yard following a handover between senior officers in 2014’ and accessed only when ‘the Met forced entry into this secure storage’ in January 2023,” the statement said.
“No explanation has been forthcoming as to why it took the Met over four months to inform us of this development. In the circumstances, we consider we are entitled to ask whether the information has come to light only because, as we understand it, the media had already got hold of the story.
“What we see here is precisely the kind of conduct that was identified as institutional corruption in the Panel’s June 2021 report; it appears that the Met’s first objective remains to protect itself, concealing its failings for the sake of its public image and reputational benefit.”
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