Daniel Morgan’s family release statement over newly ‘discovered’ documents in murder case
The family of Daniel Morgan – the private investigator murdered in a pub car park with an axe in 1987 – have said they are “not surprised” by the news that a raft of documents connected to the unsolved case had been “locked in a cabinet”.
It comes after an independent review in 2021, which itself took eight years to conclude, found the way the Met had handled the 1987 murder case, and the investigation in the decades after, was corrupt and incompetent.
Mr Morgan’s family said they were told only last night of the discovery by The Met’s Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray, who told them the documents had placed in the locked cabinet after a “handover between senior officers in 2014”.
In a statement released today, the family of Daniel Morgan 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.
“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.”
The Met confirmed some of the newly discovered material should have been used in the review.
Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray said: “We fully acknowledge how unacceptable and deeply regrettable this situation is.
“We are working to understand what has taken place and any impact. We apologise to the family of Daniel Morgan and to the Panel.”
Pictured top: Daniel Morgan was killed with in a pub car park in Sydenham with axe in 1987 (Picture: PA)
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