by TOM FOOT
REVELATIONS that a senior detective investigating the murder of a Finsbury man was placed under surveillance by the News of the World have boosted a family’s campaign for justice.
Alastair Morgan, who lives in Clerkenwell, is demanding that Home Secretary Theresa May launch a full judicial inquiry into the savage murder of his brother Daniel in 1987.
Daniel was found with an axe in the back of his head in a pub car park in south-east London. The murder remains unsolved despite five separate police investigations spanning 24 years of torment for the family.
Mr Morgan said: “Now we have new information coming to us all the time… We will not be deflected until this has been the subject of a full and thorough inquiry.”
It has emerged during the police inquiry into News of the World phone hacking that the tabloid was spying on the main detective investigating Daniel’s murder, Dave Cook.
Mr Cook’s name was found in the notebooks of Glenn Mulcaire. His fellow News of the World investigator, Jonathan Rees, was charged with conspiracy to murder Daniel in 2008.
But the case collapsed last March with Met Police admitting “corruption” in their ranks had led to crucial evidence going missing.
Yesterday (Thursday), questions about the relationship between police and the News of the World were put directly to Acting Police Commissioner Tim Godwin in City Hall.
Mr Godwin told City Hall yesterday: “Let me assure you corruption is no way endemic in the police force. These are very, very, very challenging times for us.
“Sometimes I find it hard to hear some of the views being expressed about corruption being endemic. The vast majority of men and women working in the police force are honest, hard-working people.”
Speaking at Conway Hall, Holborn, on Tuesday, Mr Morgan told a public meeting: “After we have assimilated Mr Godwin’s response, we will issue a submission to Secretary of State Theresa May laying out all the reasons for a full judicial inquiry into Daniel’s murder, and why it is essential that the public gets to bottom of these relationship and, most importantly, the police’s conduct in all five investigations into my brother’s murder.”
In a letter sent to the Home Secretary, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury Emily Thornberry said: “There appear to be serious failings in the handling of witnesses and documents. This led to the trial collapsing and the accused were acquitted because there was no evidence.” The government has so far dismissed calls for an inquiry but, after fresh evidence came to light through the hacking scandal, Ms Thornberry believes “things have moved on”. The MP is awaiting a response from the Home Secretary.
Daniel Morgan, who grew up with his brother in Clerkenwell, worked for detective agency Southern Investigations with Mr Rees.
Mr Morgan believes his brother was murdered because he was about to expose corrupt links between police officers and organised criminals.
The Metropolitan Police Service admitted after the hearing collapsed that police corruption had been “a significant factor in this failure to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of Daniel”.
For more information on the campaign, go to www.justice4daniel.org.
http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2011/jul/axe-murder-daniel-morgans-family-fight-inquiry
REVELATIONS that a senior detective investigating the murder of a Finsbury man was placed under surveillance by the News of the World have boosted a family’s campaign for justice.
Alastair Morgan, who lives in Clerkenwell, is demanding that Home Secretary Theresa May launch a full judicial inquiry into the savage murder of his brother Daniel in 1987.
Daniel was found with an axe in the back of his head in a pub car park in south-east London. The murder remains unsolved despite five separate police investigations spanning 24 years of torment for the family.
Mr Morgan said: “Now we have new information coming to us all the time… We will not be deflected until this has been the subject of a full and thorough inquiry.”
It has emerged during the police inquiry into News of the World phone hacking that the tabloid was spying on the main detective investigating Daniel’s murder, Dave Cook.
Mr Cook’s name was found in the notebooks of Glenn Mulcaire. His fellow News of the World investigator, Jonathan Rees, was charged with conspiracy to murder Daniel in 2008.
But the case collapsed last March with Met Police admitting “corruption” in their ranks had led to crucial evidence going missing.
Yesterday (Thursday), questions about the relationship between police and the News of the World were put directly to Acting Police Commissioner Tim Godwin in City Hall.
Mr Godwin told City Hall yesterday: “Let me assure you corruption is no way endemic in the police force. These are very, very, very challenging times for us.
“Sometimes I find it hard to hear some of the views being expressed about corruption being endemic. The vast majority of men and women working in the police force are honest, hard-working people.”
Speaking at Conway Hall, Holborn, on Tuesday, Mr Morgan told a public meeting: “After we have assimilated Mr Godwin’s response, we will issue a submission to Secretary of State Theresa May laying out all the reasons for a full judicial inquiry into Daniel’s murder, and why it is essential that the public gets to bottom of these relationship and, most importantly, the police’s conduct in all five investigations into my brother’s murder.”
In a letter sent to the Home Secretary, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury Emily Thornberry said: “There appear to be serious failings in the handling of witnesses and documents. This led to the trial collapsing and the accused were acquitted because there was no evidence.” The government has so far dismissed calls for an inquiry but, after fresh evidence came to light through the hacking scandal, Ms Thornberry believes “things have moved on”. The MP is awaiting a response from the Home Secretary.
Daniel Morgan, who grew up with his brother in Clerkenwell, worked for detective agency Southern Investigations with Mr Rees.
Mr Morgan believes his brother was murdered because he was about to expose corrupt links between police officers and organised criminals.
The Metropolitan Police Service admitted after the hearing collapsed that police corruption had been “a significant factor in this failure to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of Daniel”.
For more information on the campaign, go to www.justice4daniel.org.
http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2011/jul/axe-murder-daniel-morgans-family-fight-inquiry
