Scotland Yard’s culture of corruption and cover-ups

Damning report into unsolved axe murder set to reveal...

A long-AwAited report into the unsolved axe murder of a private detective is expected to expose a ‘culture of corruption and cover-up’ at Scotland Yard, the daily Mail can reveal.

on another day of shame for Britain’s biggest force, leading officers in the Met are set to face personal criticism on tuesday over their handling of the daniel Morgan case.

According to sources, the bombshell report will reveal that at one stage police misled MPs over the 1987 murder and will be scathing of the now defunct Police Complaints Authority.

At least two former provincial chief constables who had involvement in the Morgan case will be admonished, as will Hampshire Police which carried out an ‘independent inquiry’ into the murder and alleged police corruption in the late 1980s.

A source briefed on parts of the report said it will ‘expose a culture of corruption and cover-up’ in the Met. last night Morgan’s campaigning brother Alastair said: ‘i will be disappointed if the report did not come to the conclusion there was institutional corruption in daniel’s case.’

Any use of the term ‘institutional corruption’ in the report would be a hammer blow to the Met, still reeling from scathing comments earlier this year by lady Brittan, widow of former home secretary leon Brittan, that ‘a culture of cover-up and flick away’ exists in the force.

According to reports, Met boss dame Cressida dick is expected to be personally criticised by the daniel Morgan independent Panel when its report is published.

the murder of Morgan, 37, who was found with an axe embedded in his head in a south- east london pub car park 34 years ago, is the most investigated case in British history. the initial investigation was marred by allegations of police corruption. despite five inquiries, no one has been brought to justice.

At an estimated final cost of £20million, the panel investigated the case for eight years and was expected to publish its findings last month. However Home Secretary Priti Patel infuriated Morgan’s family after she ordered that her department should first vet sensitive parts of the 1,200-page report on national security grounds.

Miss Patel is expected to come under pressure to get tough over the ‘cover-up culture’ and lack of accountability at the Met not only in the Morgan case, but also in the operation Midland ‘nick’ scandal which has seen no officers brought to book despite two judges saying the law was broken by the force.

last month the times reported that dame Cressida is expected to be personally criticised over Scotland Yard’s ‘alleged obstruction’ of the inquiry.

the Met commissioner and other senior officers will be accused of delaying the inquiry into the unsolved murder by ‘trying to control the disclosure of sensitive police documents’, it was claimed.

the daniel Morgan independent Panel, appointed by then home secretary theresa May in 2013, was asked to carry out a ‘full and effective review of corruption as it affected the handling of this case’. it was expected to take just a year. it is understood that the panel will blame the delays on the failure of the Met promptly to disclose relevant files in the five failed inquiries.

Morgan’s family believe he was on the verge of exposing police corruption when he was killed. A murder trial at the old Bailey collapsed in 2011 after concerns about the police handling of ‘supergrass’ witnesses and the Met’s failure to disclose sensitive police files.

dame Cressida, then an assistant commissioner, produced a joint report with the Crown Prosecution Service that detailed the failings in the case. when the panel was first announced, she was made the liaison between it and the Met. A source said the ‘provision of all relevant documents to the panel came within her remit’.

Alastair Morgan blames dame Cressida for his mother not getting to see the report before she died in 2017. in 2014, the Mail published an acclaimed three-part series on the case and has championed the Morgan family’s campaign for justice.

Former prime suspects glenn Vian and Jonathan Rees were acquitted of murder in 2011. Mr Vian, who denied being the axeman, died last year. His brother garry was also acquitted of involvement.

Mr Rees is in a long-term relationship with daniel Morgan’s former lover Margaret Harrison. He has been highly critical of the police.

‘Sensitive police documents’