NEWS > 20 November 2006

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Guardian Unlimited - UK
20 November 2006

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DNA may solve killing that sha

The case has perplexed Scotland Yard for two decades. Despite a lengthy investigation, several arrests and four inquiries no one has been held responsible for the murder of a private detective said to have been on the brink of exposing major police corruption.
Now the suit worn by Daniel Morgan when he was killed with an axe in a pub car park in south London could offer vital evidence. Detectives say developments in DNA testing and fingerprinting have unearthed fresh clues. "It is like a jigsaw puzzle with a million pieces, but we are very optimistic," said Detective Superintendent David Cook, who is heading a team of 36 police reviewing all the evidence.

The case has assumed totemic significance for both the Metropolitan Police and the Metropolitan Police Authority, both believing a conviction would send a strong message about how the force has changed. They have faced relentless pressure from Mr Morgan's relatives for the killers to be brought to justice.
Torn pocket

Mr Morgan, 38, an investigator for a south London firm of private detectives, was wearing a newly dry-cleaned suit when he was killed with a blow to the head in 1987 in the car park of the Gold Lion in Sydenham. He had just had a drink with Jonathan Rees, his partner in Southern Investigations.

One pocket of his trousers was badly ripped and it was thought Mr Morgan might have done it by involuntarily tearing his hand from his pocket as he was struck. Now police believe something may have been torn out by his killers and have found traces of DNA that could implicate them. In addition, new lighting techniques for fingerprints mean that minute traces on the handle of the axe, which had been wrapped in sticking plaster to avoid leaving prints, can now be detected.

Other parts of the jigsaw are being completed by the emergence of witnesses who did not come forward at the time. Some have provided police with what is said to be vital information. Police have also found Mr Morgan's 1957 Austin Healey which went missing at the time.

Mystery caller

An appeal has been issued for a woman who called the incident room shortly after the attack to get back in touch. She rang to tell police of a potential cocaine link to the case and was too frightened to give her real name. She was interviewed by officers at a train station and is described as white and of medium build. Detectives hope that she will feel able to come forward again and that she will be joined by others.

"This murder is one of the worst-kept secrets in south-east London," said Mr Cook, who has worked on other cases from the 80s that were resolved after long delays. "There is a whole cabal of people who know the identity of some of the people involved and a number of people have already come forward with new information." There is a �50,000 reward on offer for information that leads to a conviction.

Alastair Morgan, Daniel's brother, who has campaigned with his mother for the case to be kept alive, said he is hopeful after feeling badly let down by previous inaction and incompetence. "I have been very impressed by Dave Cook," he said. "There have now been four inquiries but I do believe that there is a real chance that something will finally happen. I urge any witnesses to come forward as they can have complete confidence in the integrity of this inquiry."

Detectives are going through tens of thousands of statements and pieces of evidence. They are also examining car phone records that are still intact. It is believed that all the chief suspects, who include a former police officer and a local drug dealer and career criminal, are still alive.

Rees and Sid Fillery, a police officer who moonlighted for the company and later joined it after leaving the force on medical grounds, were questioned at the time and denied involvement in the murder. Rees was later jailed for seven years for trying to plant cocaine on a woman so that she would lose custody of her child.

MPA chairman Len Duvall said: "There has always been a need to clear the air and we are pleased that such progress is being made. We need to draw a line over what was a dark period in Met history. Advances in modern science allow us to examine issues in a way that was never possible before. We are vigilant to the prospect of corruption from the past, the present and in the future."

Corruption

Jennette Arnold, an MPA member and London assembly constituency member for Mr Morgan's brother Alastair, said: "This is one of the few unsolved murders we have in London and is a reminder of the old police culture of corruption and unaccountability."

When Daniel Morgan was killed many theories were floated as to why he was a target, apart from the suggestion that he was about to expose corrupt police officers. It was claimed that he might have had an affair with a client or that Colombian drug dealers were involved.

Det Supt Cook dismissed the latter suggestions and said that the prime suspects were "white Anglo-Saxons".

He added: "Daniel Morgan was a hard-working man and he loved his family and his children and people have tried unfairly to blacken his character. We very much hope that we will be able to bring this to a successful conclusion in court."

Backstory

Born in Singapore, the son of an army officer, Daniel Morgan grew up in Gwent, south Wales, where he attended agricultural college. He set up his own detective agency, Southern Investigations, in Thornton Heath in 1984.

A keen rugby player and angler, he was married with two children. On March 10 1987 he left the Golden Lion pub where he had been drinking with his business partner Jonathon Rees. He was struck on the back of the head with an axe and found dead beside his BMW in the pub carpark.

His Rolex was missing but his wallet was still there. Four inquiries have failed to lead to a murder trial. Just before his death Morgan had expressed his disquiet about police corruption. Four separate investigations, one conducted by an outside police force, Hampshire, have been carried out into the murder.

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Article sourced from

Guardian Unlimited - UK20 November 2006

DNA may solve killing that sha

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Guardian Unlimited - UK
20 November 2006