Long-awaited report on one of UK’s most notorious cold cases to be published
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A publication date has been confirmed for the long-awaited report into the unsolved murder of private detective Daniel Morgan.
The findings, by an independent panel, will be published on June 15 in an unredacted form.
The father-of-two was killed with an axe in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south-east London, on March 10 1987.
Despite five police inquiries and an inquest, no-one has been brought to justice over Mr Morgan’s death, with the Metropolitan Police admitting corruption had hampered the original murder investigation.
In 2013, then home secretary Theresa May announced that an independent panel was being set up to examine the case.
The report was due to be released in May, but a last-minute intervention by the Home Office sparked a furious row with the panel and Mr Morgan’s family.
Officials said that parts of the report may need to be kept secret due to national security or human rights concerns, but the panel insisted it had already worked with lawyers and Metropolitan Police security experts over eight years.
It said that the intervention was “unnecessary” and “not consistent with the panel’s independence”.
Mr Morgan’s family branded the delay “a kick in the teeth” and called on Home Secretary Priti Patel “to try to understand her limited role in relation to the panel and the need for sensitivity and basic human decency in the exercise of her powers”.
They urged her to be “mindful of the unending distress she is causing to each and every member of our family”.
The Home Office insisted that it had an obligation to make the checks and was not seeking to edit the document.
An agreement was reached that a “small team” from the Home Office would be permitted to read the report in advance of publication.
On Tuesday, officials confirmed that the report will be published on June 15 in an unredacted form.
Mr Morgan’s brother Alastair, who has campaigned for justice for more than three decades, believes the report will contain “a sizeable chapter” on police corruption.
The panel’s remit was to address questions relating to the murder including police handling of the investigation; the role corruption played in protecting Mr Morgan’s killer; and the links between private investigators, police and journalists connected to the case.
