Daniel John Morgan (3 November 1949 – 10 March 1987) was a British private investigator who was murdered with an axe in a pub car park in Sydenham, London, in 1987. Despite several Metropolitan Police investigations, arrests, and trial, the crime remains unsolved. An independent review into the handling of the investigation of Morgan's killing was published in 2021; it found that the Met Police had "a form of institutional corruption" which had concealed or denied failings in the case.
At the time of his death, Morgan worked for Southern Investigations, a company he had founded with his business partner Jonathan Rees. Rees was arrested in April 1987 on suspicion of murder along with Morgan's future replacement at Southern, Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery, and two brothers, Glenn and Garry Vian. All were released without charge. Over the next three decades, several additional police inquiries were conducted. In 2009 Rees, Fillery, the Vian Brothers and a builder, James Cook, appeared at the Old Bailey charged with Morgan's murder. The trial collapsed in 2011 after evidence obtained from supergrasses was deemed inadmissible by the court. Shortly after the case, the activities of Rees – as a private investigator – became the centre of allegations concerning the conduct of journalists at the now-defunct News of the World newspaper.
In 2006 Morgan's unsolved murder was described by Jennette Arnold, a former Labour Co-op politician who served as chair of the London Assembly, as a reminder of the culture of corruption and unaccountability within the Metropolitan Police. The profile of the case has been raised by investigative journalist Peter Jukes, who released a podcast and book about the murder in conjunction with Alastair Morgan, Daniel's brother.
Early life
Daniel Morgan was born on 3 November 1949 in Singapore, the son of an army officer. He grew up with an elder brother and younger sister in Monmouthshire, Wales, where he attended agricultural college in Usk before spending time in Denmark gaining experience of farming.
Morgan had an exceptional memory for small details, such as car registration numbers, and in 1984 he set up a detective agency, Southern Investigations, in Thornton Heath, southern Greater London.
He married in his late twenties and moved to London, where he and his wife settled and had two children. At the time of his murder, Morgan was having an affair with a woman named Margaret Harrison, and had met her at 6:30pm at a wine bar in Thornton Heath shortly before the murder.
Murder
On 10 March 1987, after having a drink with Jonathan Rees (his partner in Southern Investigations) at the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, 37-year-old Morgan was found dead in the pub car park next to his car. He was found by a BBC sound producer lying face up with an axe embedded in his head. Although a watch had been stolen, his wallet had been left and a large sum of money was still in his jacket pocket. The pocket of his trousers had been torn open and notes he had earlier been seen writing were missing.
Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery, based at Catford police station, was assigned to the case, but did not reveal to superiors that he had been working unofficially for Southern Investigations. In April 1987, six individuals, including Fillery and Rees, Rees' brothers-in-law Glenn and Garry Vian, and two Metropolitan Police officers, were arrested on suspicion of murder. All were eventually released without charge.
At the inquest into Morgan's death in April 1988, it was alleged that Rees, after disagreements with Morgan, told Kevin Lennon (an accountant at Southern Investigations) that officers at Catford police station who were friends of his were either going to murder Morgan or would arrange it, and that Fillery would replace Morgan as Rees's partner. When asked, Rees denied murdering Morgan. Fillery, who had retired from the Metropolitan Police on medical grounds and joined Southern Investigations as Rees's business partner, was alleged by witnesses to have tampered with evidence and attempted to interfere with witnesses during the inquiry.
In the summer of 1987, detective constable Alan "Taffy" Holmes, an acquaintance of Morgan, was found to have died by suicide under mysterious circumstances. Morgan and Holmes allegedly collaborated on unveiling police corruption. This was discounted by the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel report. Haslam was discounted as a serial fantasist by Baroness O'Loan.
The murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and subsequent reports on police conduct brought further insight into ongoing police corruption in south-east London.