Daniel Morgan Murder

[stuart]

It's 32 years John.

One small consolation is that two suspects did get banged up for unrelated offences uncovered during the investigation which they otherwise would probably have got away with.

My thoughts are with Daniel's brother and mother who did so much to stop this case being buried. They must be mad their good work was frittered away.

Stuart

[simon]

New program on the Daniel Morgan murder on Monday

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/mur ... sode-guide

[ALIB]

BUMP. starts at 9pm, Channel 4.

Much respect to the Morgan family for pursuing this (Alistair in particular), and also the press. I hope something positive comes of this renewed publicity.

From a business partnership, to murder, police drug dealing, to a media/police corroboration, that could have, ultimately, brought down a UK Government.,....allegedly.

Motive and opportunity in abundance. Just lacking evidence.

[ALIB]

Actually, there was loads of evidence. Somehow, it got corrupted, or went missing. Then police investigations got hampered by various events.

AC and RB ,.......

[ALIB]

the first two episodes were a 'slow-burner', but the impetus is building. There are so many potential strands to the story, I think that is how the waters were muddied so comprehensively.
After all this time, any culprits have had plenty of time to 'get their stories straight'. And the overwhelming thing that sticks in my mind, is the lack of DNA evidence. That would put matters beyond doubt.

In the Stephen Lawrence case the police used 'pioneering' DNA evidence to convict after a long time (and evidence being compromised), and I am concerned that this route doesn't seem to have been explored in this case, given the police have the murder weapon, and other associated items.

We await the final episode

[ALIB]

Good impartial journalism in the last installment. Mere hints at the extent that a cover-up was conducted (probably for legal reasons), But i think AC and RB and News Corp had a huge sway on the way the investigations went/ failed.

And a man/father died and his accused are living in the media spotlight, which is causing continued misery for all. Alastair Morgan has done a stella job in progressing this, and I hope the continued media/legal pressure gives a miserable existence for those that were involved.

I hope modern technology may yet provide the pivotal break-through, most likely with DNA evidence, if any still exists.

[alywin]

Funny, I only appear to have seen the one instalment so far ...

[CATLADY]

If it helps, the 3 episodes are on All 4 already but second episode is on TV Monday at 9 pm .

[Sydenham]

Another review publication delayed as reported by Joshua Rozenberg. This time it's the Home Office and Secretary who want to check it first.

"The independent panel set up to examine the investigation into the murder of Daniel Morgan in 1987 has said it is “disappointed” that publication of its report, planned for yesterday, has been delayed until the Home Secretary and her her officials have reviewed its contents."

https://twitter.com/JoshuaRozenberg/sta ... 53120?s=19

[stuart]

A person far more knowledgeable about this case believes the rot could not have been confined to Catford nick. How far up the Met & Kent chain of command is speculation.. It may explain the Home Office sensitivity about the conduct of former senior officers becoming public. I expect the redaction engine is being pressed hard.

Plus there was a connection with a senior person at 10 Downing Street and what was known, or not known by the then PM. A man whose judgement is under some scrutiny elsewhere at this time. But i guess many secrets will be taken to the grave. Or, to be precise, many graveyards.

Stuart

[JGD]

Plus there was a connection with a senior person at 10 Downing Street and what was known, or not known by the then PM. A man whose judgement is under some scrutiny elsewhere at this time. But i guess many secrets will be taken to the grave. Or, to be precise, many graveyards.

An astute observation.

Others highlight how these links are present even in our contemporary HMG.

https://twitter.com/butwhatifitsall/sta ... 22977?s=20

Tendrils - for that is what they are - were imported into No 10 by David Cameron who befriended Murdoch's UK right-hand people and appointed one of them to a key post in No 10. Murdoch appointed one of them to a US role and paid her an ex-gratia £11m - what for, one wonders? The appointee to No 10 was dismissed and later jailed by the Scottish polis. An error on his part because he believed he could treat the Scots boys-in-blue with the same dismissiveness and mendacity that he treated the Met contemporaries that his newspaper illegally and habitually paid-off for info.

These tendrils from Murdoch's organs to the Morgan murder are quite widely known now. The goto agency that linked these illegal activities and also hired many of these policemen in off-duty roles was the one that Daniel Morgan jointly set up and continued to be operated by his partner after Morgan's murder.

The commonly understood and reported corruption of the very first investigation, based at Catford nick, was covered up for a substantial period of time. It could not have been hidden so successfully without further collusion from within the Met and the cover-up successfully deceived other forces brought into investigate previous failures.

The web of tendrils is extensive. It cannot be described in a single post and many excellently researched words have been written that make herculean efforts to describe it in its entirety..

What may shock people most in May 2021 is that it is entirely probable that officers who engaged in the cover up are still present in the Met force and that their protective cover is still provided from within No 10 and the Home office.

Even when the many graveyards have received the remains of the corrupt - it is entirely possible that there will never have been an official report or adjudication that is accurate on Daniel Morgan's murder or the cover-up that followed.

[JGD]

An excellent tweet from Cllr Alan Hall.

It has a copy of a statement made by the Independent Panel attached in response to the Home Secretary's two conflicting reasons for her decision to delay.

https://twitter.com/alan_ha11/status/13 ... 66660?s=20

[Sydenham]

Can anyone remember our Home Secretary previously holding things up due to a worry about Human Rights? Or is this a first for her?

[JGD]

A robust response from the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel to Priti Patel is reported in The Grauniad.

Patel's late intervention has been exposed as unprincipled and unwarranted as she clearly did not expect this quality of response with the measure of integrity that lies behind it.

Daniel Morgan murder: panel refuses to hand over report

The independent panel investigating the Daniel Morgan scandal is refusing the home secretary’s demands to hand over its report before it can be published, as senior police sources say nothing in the case affects national security.

Priti Patel provoked fury on Tuesday by demanding the findings be handed over for review prior to publication, angering both the Morgan family and members of the panel conducting the inquiry.

Patel cited the need to consider national security and human rights obligations before making the report public.

But one source with close knowledge of the five Metropolitan police inquiries into the case and the documents involved, said: “There are no national security issues involved. There are national embarrassment issues.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ver-report

[JGD]

From Saturday's front page of The Grauniad.

Perhaps both as our local MP and Shadow Attorney General, Ellie Reeves can assist and write to the Home Secretary and make a demand that Priti Patel remove her unprincipled block on the publication of the report.

Daniel Morgan’s son says Priti Patel has added to family’s agony

Home secretary urged to ‘bring our torture to an end’ by allowing publication of report into police and media corruption

Opinion: our father was murdered, yet we have no closure after 34 years – only anger and grief

The son of the murdered private detective Daniel Morgan has said the home secretary has exacerbated the 34 years of agony for his family by blocking the publication of the report into the role police and media corruption played in shielding his killers.

Breaking a public silence of over three decades, the son, also called Daniel, said the report of a panel investigating the 1987 murder should be published, without the government vetting it beforehand.

In a piece for the Guardian, he said: “My family have endured enough words, suffering, waiting and pain: the only currency left with any value to us is action that brings our torture to an end.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ilys-agony

[stuart]

Report will be published on June 15th. From BBC News:

A spokesman said: "An agreement has been reached that a small team from the Home Office will be permitted to read the report in advance of publication, under strict viewing conditions, at the premises of the panel.

"As was always envisaged, the home secretary will be provided with a copy of the report to read before publication."

The spokesman added: "In the unlikely event that any redaction is applied by the home secretary, this will be clearly indicated in a footnote."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-57280333

[JGD]

Hmmm.

Let us wait and see.

This commentary is so very typical of of many linked with the murder of Daniel Morgan.

We should not forget that Daniel was a person, loved, cherished and mourned by his family and not just some object to be scrutinised and weighed for his potential impact on the unsavoury aspects of our MPS and HMG.

Let the next steps echo at least some integrity and not just be a block in revealing some embarrassing aspect for our police service under any false pretext of national security..

[mosy]

The family solicitor read out a statement including that if any redactions were made by the HO to the independent report, the family should be given the right to read such redacted parts and called on the HO to comply with their request/expectation.

It's good that we can infer from reporting that the independent panel is discouraging HO redactions and is trying to ensure that only those properly justifiable may be made to the report.

[JGD]

It's good that we can infer from reporting that the independent panel is discouraging HO redactions and is trying to ensure that only those properly justifiable may be made to the report.

Not "hot-off-the-press" but a very important milestone has been reset with a revised publication date set for 15 June 2021.

The Home Office may have flexed some muscle to belatedly introduce (by some 8 years) a "non-negotiable" and unprincipled right to redact, but the family, it seems, will get to see what has been redacted.

An extract from The Grauniad last Friday:

On Friday, the panel confirmed the report would be published on 15 June, after an agreement was reached for a “small team” from the Home Office to be permitted to read the report in advance of publication.

The panel’s terms of reference included “police involvement in the murder; the role played by police corruption in protecting those responsible for the murder … and the failure to confront that corruption”.

It was also tasked with examining “the incidence of connections between private investigators, police officers and journalists at the former News of the World and other parts of the media, and alleged corruption involved in the linkages between them.”

The panel said on 18 May it had been “informed” that a publication date for its findings “will not be agreed until the home secretary and Home Office officials and lawyers have reviewed the contents”.

Highlighting what it thought was the strange nature of the Home Office’s decision, the panel added: “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.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... rt-in-june

[JGD]

Previous reports on the release date of 15th June may be proving premature.

Alastair Morgan reporting this evening (Monday 7th June) that final confirmation for publication has not been made.

He reflects that Home Secretary Priti Patel and Dame Cressida Dick have previous in this long running debacle.

My money would also be on Murdoch and his legal team applying all sorts of pressure on HM Tory Party to defer and redact the final version.

The thought has often emerged that prosecution of those who misused the services of Southern Investigations in their highly questionable actions would be a more straight forward case than any prosecution of Daniel Morgan's killers. There lies motive for deferral and obfuscation.

https://twitter.com/AlastairMorgan/stat ... 29540?s=20

Time for publication.

Unredacted.