Daniel Morgan Murder

[JGD]

A report from today's Guardian (14 June 2021) expands on the Official Inquiry's examination of the existence of links between suspects and the News of the World.

Daniel Morgan report could link Rupert Murdoch empire to ‘criminality’

Panel has considered describing News of the World as ‘linked to’ murder suspects in its long-awaited findings

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire could be criticised for its links to the suspects behind the murder of the private detective Daniel Morgan, the Guardian has learned.

The official inquiry investigating his death sent warning letters to people facing criticism in its long-awaited report, which is due to be published on Tuesday.

One shows the panel investigating the 1987 killing has been considering describing the defunct News of the World tabloid as being “linked to the criminality associated with the murder”.

Murdoch’s News UK told the Guardian it had not received any letter from the panel warning that it will be criticised, and said it had co-operated with the inquiry, a claim the Morgan family dispute.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/ ... riminality

[stuart]

And if you want something more spicy - which even if only half true - may explain the sensitivities of the Home Office, Met Police and Murdoch's friends in high places past and, maybe, present - read this: https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/51941 ... iel+Morgan

Stuart

[stuart]

It was the 24th Aniversary of Daniels murder yesterday. His poor mother laid a wreath at the scene.

You disgusting excuse for a piece of humanity. His mother died years ago. Batter she was here than you. Reported for spamming links.

[owlwise]

The final report is being read on the Parliament channel at 12:30pm today!

[owlwise]

Here's where you can find the full report:

https://www.danielmorganpanel.independe ... he-report/

[stuart]

Thank you Owlwise for ruining my afternoon. It's a devasting document and I've only managed to skim some sections. It doesn't offer much except detail on what we knew of the original investigation. It takes us no nearer to what happened in 1987.

But - and it's a huge BUT - it is a catalogue not so much in the corruption at Catford nick - but both the cover-up and refusal to acknowledge the corruption in the Met itself. Instead as the report so strongly states - this was no less than corruption by the highest in the service. They did little more than dump it all on Sid Fillery - a convenient lowlife 'detective' to try and avert the blame.

Tonight on both BBC London News and Channel4 News Nick Epthgrave (Met AC) refused after all this to acknowledge institutional corruption. And so it continues. So what's the chances of fixing it? I'm not holding my breath.

Stuart

[owlwise]

I know. Its disgusting. Someone has literally got away with murder and they all know who it was.

[JGD]

But - and it's a huge BUT - it is a catalogue not so much in the corruption at Catford nick - but both the cover-up and refusal to acknowledge the corruption in the Met itself. Instead as the report so strongly states - this was no less than corruption by the highest in the service. They did little more than dump it all on Sid Fillery - a convenient lowlife 'detective' to try and avert the blame.

I would go further Stuart - and I concur with you, not to a conclusion - but to perhaps one of the most important revelations that appears early in the report.

7. During the Panel’s work a public appeal for information was made and interviews were conducted by the Panel with the family, with serving and retired police officers, with other individuals who were closely involved with the police investigations and with those who had information they wished to make available to the Panel. Some witnesses approached by the Panel declined to cooperate for a variety of reasons, including fear of reprisal, even more than 30 years after the murder.

The term for this is "shameful" and shame must apply to every leader in MPS who fails to elect to expunge the institutional corruption with maximum effort.

What value a police service that after all these years cannot stand on its own hind legs and protect itself, its procedures and its own and then engage in the role that has been cast for them - protection and service to the public.

Met AC Nick Ephgrave's refusal to acknowledge the institutional nature of the problem is signal evidence of the ingrained nature of the dilemma.

His interview will not serve his stance well historically. His choice to defend Commissioner C Dick's posture and not defend what the MPS needs more, was another shameful pointer. He would have been better served to read and understand that part of the report which said that to deceive the public and issue false optimism is evidence of corruption.

What did he not understand about the fact the Independent Panel categorically articulates and reports that Dick's failure to co-operate and provide access to key systems and evidence for a period of around seven years hampered the completion of the Panel's investigation and the delivery of the report?

Much more to read and assimilate.

It can be anticipated that the label shameful will be applied to many more items in the report.

[JGD]

From the Indie today.

An independent panel said that although its investigation focused on historic failures stemming from the 1987 killing, the term institutional corruption was used “in the present tense”.

Mr Morgan’s family called for commissioner Dame Cressida Dick to consider resigning after she was personally criticised over the disclosure of evidence to the panel.

At a press conference on Tuesday, assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave said his superior did not have “any need to consider her position”.

“She has overseen disclosure to a level that has never been done before,” he added.

“The access the panel have had has been unparalleled in my experience.”

This leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

The Panel's report includes evidence where MPS issued statements that were planned to deliberately deceive both the intended recipient and the public.

So in light of that evidence how is Nick Ephgrave's statement that "She has overseen disclosure to a level that has never been done before." to be interpreted?

Is it the case, as the report states, that degrees of co-operation and disclosure were so bad as to delay the completion of the report by several years and therefore that disclosure levels were appallingly and unacceptably low and were deficient in terms of candour?

Or is he trying to invert what the Panel reports as fact and make a false case that the levels of MPS disclosure were at high levels never seen before?

The Panel make recommendation that a Duty of Candour should be made mandatory in all public service bodies and that they must be obliged to provide clear and accurate evidence to Inquiries as a matter of course.

Nick Ephgrave should read and learn.

Treating the Panel and the public as if they are all hostile litigants in a legal case against MPS is a major error.

Apologies - omitted link in first version of post:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/c ... 66460.html

[stuart]

Why was AC Nick Ephgrave sent out to defend the Met and his boss? It was clear from the report where the buck stops and who is being accused of continuing 'institutional corruption'. Police officers are trained to handle dangerous men with knives or worse - so BBC & Channel 4 reporters should hold little fear for an open and transparent Commissioner.

Sad to see former commissioner Ian Blair being rollled out to not recognise the term. I guess he has not had time to read and digest the report. Is it all part of a plan to turn yesterday's report into tomorrow's chip paper? Nothing to see here except a few bad apples.

But if you put one bad apple at the bottom of a barrel and put 99 good apples on top - what do you get after a short time? The report detailed how corruption spreads. How good police people often have to choose between honouring their commitment to justice or having a career or paying the mortgage. The Met is in denial. Reputation before justice like so many other instiutions.

Which even spreads here. I was chastised by influential people for banging on and on over the years about this case. "It damages the image of Sydenham". No, my friends, you damage the pursuit of justice.

Finaally many deserved tributes have been paid to Alastair Morgan for his tenanicity in holding the Met to account. But nothing would have happened without the fearless actions of Len Duvall and Theresa May in putting the sordid facts into the public domain and having them thorougly investigated. They stand out from politicians from Hazel Blears to Priti Patel who both appear to put the Met before justice.

Stuart

[JGD]

Well said Stuart.

But if you put one bad apple at the bottom of a barrel and put 99 good apples on top - what do you get after a short time? The report detailed how corruption spreads. How good police people often have to choose between honouring their commitment to justice or having a career or paying the mortgage. The Met is in denial. Reputation before justice like so many other instiutions.

Which even spreads here. I was chastised by influential people for banging on and on over the years about this case. "It damages the image of Sydenham". No, my friends, you damage the pursuit of justice.

Finally many deserved tributes have been paid to Alastair Morgan for his tenacity in holding the Met to account. But nothing would have happened without the fearless actions of Len Duvall and Theresa May in putting the sordid facts into the public domain and having them thoroughly investigated. They stand out from politicians from Hazel Blears to Priti Patel who both appear to put the Met before justice.

From Byline Times, Peter Jukes highlights how important it is to address institutional corruption and expunge it:

The Morgan family’s lawyer, Raju Bhatt, added that “it would be misleading and mistaken to think in terms of a hierarchy of sickness within our police forces” and that “institutionalised corruption is as serious, if not more serious, than any of the other sicknesses that affect our policing”.

“The reason why it has taken much longer [to have ‘institutional corruption’ vocalised] is something you want to ask the hierarchy of the Metropolitan Police, their will, as well as their ability to confront such deep-seated problems,” he told Byline Times.

In his 2017 book, Who Killed Daniel Morgan?, co-authored with Alastair Morgan, Byline Times’ executive editor Peter Jukes explored why a finding of institutional corruption was never forthcoming in the Daniel Morgan case.

“With the revelation of a network of corrupt police, dozens of trials could have collapsed and convictions been rendered unsafe,” he observed. “Senior officers may have decided then that burying the true story around Daniel was the lesser of two evils. But, of course, the lesser evil just grew… Institutional racism was easier to accept, it seems, than prevalent corruption. The latter undermined the very function of the Met.”

In a statement, the Morgan family said that it became aware of “police corruption at the heart of this matter within three weeks of the murder” and, at almost every step, “we found ourselves lied to, fobbed off, bullied, degraded and let down time and time again”. It said “what we were required to endure was nothing less than torture and that has changed our relationship with this country forever”.

The DMIP report revealed “the complicity and worse of the British state in all its guises”, the family said, and any failure on the part of the Met Police “to address the culture of corruption and cover-up identified by the panel will serve only to demonstrate your own complicity in that corruption”.

According to the DMIP, “the Metropolitan Police’s lack of candour manifested itself in the hurdles placed in the path of the panel” – including the claim by the Met that, to provide the panel with access to its HOLMES database, it would have to refurbish the panel’s office, “including new strengthened walls, a new stronger secure door and reinforced windows”. Access was eventually provided to the database securely online when the Coronavirus pandemic hit last year.

https://bylinetimes.com/2021/06/15/the- ... rgan-fami/

[stuart]

The Home Office & Met have a clear cunning plan. Ignore the findings and hope it will all be forgotten. Which is a pretty corrupt way of handling clear cases of corruption and obstruction. Sorry, but I have lost it with Cressida. She is now the living embodiment that our police service still cannot be trusted. Bonus for the corrupt but grotesquely unfair to all those in the Met committed to bringing people to justice.

Relying on Bully Patel to do the decent thing when it comes to renewal of Cressida's contract is perhaps too much to hope?

Latest report: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/dani ... 46899.html

Stuart

[JGD]

Caroline Pidgeon AM has tweeted an extract of her recent questioning last week of some members of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel and Met Commissioner Dame C Dick.

The AM framed a position to Dame C Dick that it was unclear what Met corruption during the first investigation was being admitted to.

She asked Dame C Dick directly, what corruption was being admitted to.

The commissioner astonishingly responded that there was a suggestion by one person that corrupt police people might have been involved in the murder and that was not corroborated and there was no further evidence.

Dame C Dick then effectively closed down the exchange by saying now was not the time to discuss the details of that further.

When will that time be?

When will MPS cease trying to re-shape the harsh optic that they appear to continue to collude in a cover up?

https://twitter.com/CarolinePidgeon/sta ... 81601?s=20

[Sydenham]

It really is disappointing how the MPS just doesn't want to acknowledge past (and not so past shortcomings). It's a different world now to 10, 20 years ago. "Policing by consent" summarised Peel's principles when establishing the original force as an ethical one. I just hope they change their attitude to those on behalf they are policing soon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles

[JGD]

Alastair Morgan tweets on the 35th anniversary of the murder of his brother, Daniel Morgan, in the car park at The Golden Lion.

https://twitter.com/AlastairMorgan/stat ... cSC1OCkuGA

Does anyone else feel that even before the Russians invaded Ukraine, HMG, The Home Office and MPS were moving onward so rapidly and decidedly NOT taking any effective action on the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel's Report that they hoped it could all be swept under an already very lumpy carpet?

When will the UK find the required wherewithal to finally establish culpability not only on the murder but the cover up and political shenanigans of MPS and actually prosecute all of those involved - at whatever stage and from whatever public body?

[ALIB]

And still the ineptitude continues:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-65544848
"The Metropolitan Police has apologised for not disclosing documents relating to the murder of a private detective which it says were were found in a locked cabinet at its headquarters.

Daniel Morgan was found with an axe in his head in the car park of a pub in Sydenham, south-east London, in 1987.

The Met was institutionally corrupt in its handling of elements of the case, an independent panel found in 2021.

The latest failure is "unacceptable and deeply regrettable", the Met says.

Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray said: "We are working to understand what has taken place and any impact. We apologise to the family of Daniel Morgan and to the panel."

Thirty-seven documents spanning 95 pages that should have been disclosed to the panel led by Baroness O'Loan were found in the locked cabinet at New Scotland Yard in January and an assessment started in February, the Met said.

The force also admitted a further 23 documents across 71 pages should have been shared with the police watchdog, which in a separate March 2022 report found the Met's approach to tackling corruption within its ranks to be "fundamentally flawed" . (BBC website, 10 May 2023)

[alywin]

Totally unbelievable, isn't it.

[Just John]

No doubt the same cupboard where Policemen's notebooks that have been mislaid are stored.

[ALIB]

And now compensation being decided. Money isn't really the issue here. However, the Morgan family need to get some closure on this case, because the Met have been just completely incapable of anything, other that covering their own backsides.


"The Met Police is in talks regarding a payout to the family of murdered private detective Daniel Morgan.

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he could not confirm a figure as he was "legally bound" for the next few days.

He also spoke of efforts to transform the Met's culture, which he said included the removal of more officers.

Mr Morgan, 37, was found with an axe in his head in the car park of a pub in Sydenham, south-east London, in 1987.

No-one has been convicted over the father of two's killing, since which there have been five inquiries and an inquest, at an estimated cost of more than £40m.

The Met has previously admitted corruption hampered the original murder investigation and apologised to Mr Morgan's family. A panel found in 2021 that the Met repeatedly covered up its failings.

The force's first objective in the case had been to protect itself, said Baroness O'Loan, the head of the independent panel." (BBC website 18.7.23)

[stuart]

Today's update from the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ith-family

The Morgan family issued a statement on Wednesday morning announcing their acceptance of a financial settlement made by the Met after the force faced being sued and potentially embarrassing court hearings looming.

Rowley said: “I unequivocally and unreservedly apologise for the failure of the Metropolitan police service to bring those responsible for the murder of Daniel Morgan to justice. From the earliest stages, his family have been repeatedly and inexcusably let down by the Metropolitan police.

“No words can do justice to the pain and suffering that has been a feature of the family’s lives for more than three decades as they have fought for justice, a fight which no family should have to endure. Their tenacious campaigning has exposed multiple and systemic failings in this organisation.

Daniel Morgan: how a 30-year-old murder still haunts Britain’s powerful
Read more
“I have met with the family and listened to vivid and moving accounts of the devastating impact those failings have had on their lives. They have explained how their trust in policing has been eroded. The personal commitment I made to tackling corruption in this organisation when I took over as commissioner has never been stronger.”

-------------------------

PERSONAL NOTE: Corruption was both at the highest level and even here in Sydenham. I had the honour of meeting his brother twenty years ago and tried to help the campaign. For that I was criticised by those who should have known better for bringing Sydenham into "disrepute". Today they should be hanging their heads in shame as part of the cover-up.

But I doubt they will.

Stuart