STEPHEN WRIGHT: Daniel Morgan’s family has waited 34 years for answers over his grisly murder… there is no excuse for this injustice

That gnawing sense of injustice creates a troubled look that I have seen a number of times in my 25 years covering high-profile crimes for the Daily Mail.

I saw it etched on the face of Doreen Lawrence in the early days of this newspaper’s Justice for Stephen campaign in the late 1990s. Her family was desperate for her son’s killers to face trial – and for police to be held to account over a litany of appalling blunders.

A similar expression was on the face of André Hanscombe, the partner of Wimbledon Common killing victim Rachel Nickell, who I came to know very well. He had to wait 16 years for her killer to be belatedly brought to justice in another case mishandled by Scotland Yard.

And I have seen that same look of thinly veiled anger about perceived police cover-ups and lack of accountability on the face of Daniel Morgan’s brave brother Alastair.

Victim: Daniel Morgan was murdered in a pub car park in 1987 

He has been waiting 34 years for justice in a case mired by allegations of Scotland Yard corruption and incompetence.

As Alastair told me recently, his brother’s shocking axe murder in a pub car park in 1987 has changed the course of his life. As with so many other victims of crime I have dealt with over the years, he can’t move on until he gets justice and answers.

It’s been an exhausting quest for transparency from a police establishment determined to keep things under wraps.

After waiting so long for answers, one could argue that a delay of a few weeks before the 1,500-page official report into Daniel’s case is published is no big deal. But when you have been let down so many times by the authorities over such a long period, you are entitled to be sceptical about what is really going on.

Will certain parts of the report be censored to save the Metropolitan Police – and certain very senior officers – from embarrassment?

Cleared: Glenn Vian

Or is the reason being given to delay publication of the report, which I expect to be scathing of the Metropolitan Police and its culture, a cover story to give the Home Office and the police time to devise a damage limitation strategy? I spoke yesterday to a number of well-placed sources who can think of no ‘national security’ implications in the Morgan report which should hold up publication of it. 

They also pointed out that the human rights of individuals affected by its findings had already been considered.

In effect, they were backing Alastair’s assertion that the delay caused by the Home Office’s intervention is ‘suspicious’.

Lovers: Jonathan Rees and Margaret Harrison

Remember it was only three months ago that, in a bombshell interview in the Daily Mail, former home secretary Leon Brittan’s widow Diana attacked a ‘culture of cover up’ at Scotland Yard and accused senior ranks of lacking a ‘moral spine’.

She vented her fury after waiting five years for Met officers to be brought to book over their shambolic VIP abuse inquiry. Her wait continues. Alastair Morgan has been waiting 34 years for answers and accountability. He and his family should not have to wait an unnecessary day longer to see the report.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, accused of ‘unnecessary’ interference in the case which has affected the report’s ‘independence’, should ensure that publication can go ahead next week.

Family’s fury as report into unsolved 1987 axe murder is delayed by Home Office  

By Stephen Wright for the Daily Mail 

THE brother of Daniel Morgan yesterday urged Priti Patel to stop delaying publication of a report into the murder of the private detective.

Amid fears that some findings may be censored, Alastair Morgan said the Home Secretary should urgently reconsider her position.

Daniel Morgan, a 37-year-old father of two, was found with an axe in his head in the car park of a south London pub in 1987. Despite five police inquiries and an inquest, no one has been brought to justice, with Scotland Yard admitting corruption had hampered the original murder probe.

The panel examining the case had been due to publish its findings on Monday following an eight-year inquiry. But it has been told by the Home Office that no parliamentary time can be found to allow this to happen.

And this week the ministry announced it wanted to review the 1,500-page document and would keep parts secret if felt necessary. It is expected to contain ‘a sizeable chapter’ on police corruption.

Alastair Morgan, who has spent 34 years campaigning over his brother’s grisly murder, said: ‘This intervention is very ill advised by the Home Secretary, particularly at this late juncture.

‘My nephew, Daniel’s son, has travelled all the way over from Australia to be here. So it’s inconvenient, an irritation, but I’m kind of used to this.

‘I hope Priti Patel reconsiders her position because the arguments she has put forward for wanting to see it are just empty. If this is about looking for a good day to bury bad news, this has done nothing but draw attention to the report.

‘I am sure the panel are going to defend their independence fiercely. And any thought of redaction, they would argue against that fiercely.’ He warned that if a cover-up was attempted ‘Miss Patel will have a fight on her hands’.

Earlier the family’s lawyer, Raju Bhatt, told Radio 4’s Today programme the family had ‘every reason’ to be suspicious. He said: ‘We have to remember that the Home Office itself was complicit in the failings to confront this police corruption all through these decades until the panel was set up.’

The Daniel Morgan Independent Panel, which has already cost taxpayers £16million, has been told a publication date will not be agreed until the Home Office reviews the report.

The panel released a forceful statement in response, saying: ‘A review of this nature has not been raised previously in the eight years since the panel was established in 2013. The panel believes that this last-minute requirement is unnecessary and is not consistent with the panel’s independence.’

The inquiry’s remit was to address questions relating to the murder, including police handling of the case, the role corruption played in protecting Mr Morgan’s killer, and the links between private investigators, police and journalists. A Home Office spokesman said Miss Patel had an obligation to ensure the report complied with human rights and national security considerations.

She added: ‘This has nothing to do with the independence of the report, and the Home Office is not seeking to make edits to it.

‘As soon as we receive the report, we can begin those checks and agree a publication date.’

The death of Daniel Morgan has been described as ‘Britain’s most investigated unsolved murder’.

It has been long accepted – and publicly acknowledged by senior officers – that police corruption was an important factor in the inability to catch the killers.

In 2014, the Mail published an acclaimed three-part series on the case and has championed the family’s campaign for justice.

Former prime suspects Glenn Vian and Jonathan Rees were acquitted of murder in 2011.

Mr Vian, who denied being the axeman, died last year. His brother Garry was also acquitted of involvement in the killing.

Mr Rees is in a long-term relationship with Daniel Morgan’s former lover Margaret Harrison.

He has been highly critical of the police and has spoken of his sadness about the killing.

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