Alastair Morgan (left) and his brother Daniel

Published: 17 August, 2012
by ANDREW JOHNSON

A MAN who has spent 25 years trying to bring his brother’s killers to justice has accused Home Secretary Theresa May of deliberately kicking his case into the long grass.

Alastair Morgan, who lives in Clerkenwell, wrote to Ms May a year ago asking for a public inquiry into the failure by police to solve his brother Daniel’s murder, but has still not had a reply.

His case is now being supported by the human rights campaign group Liberty and an exhibition about the case is due to open at a gallery near Upper Street next week.

“A whole year has gone by,” said Alastair. “It’s coming up to the point where we can say she is acting unreasonably in not replying. But she has written to my mother’s MP and offered a new police inquiry led by a QC, without consulting us. We don’t deal with backdoor letters to MPs.”

Private detective Daniel was found in the car park of a south London pub in 1987 with an axe buried in his head.

It is thought he was about to expose police corruption. Despite five police investigations and trials the killers have never faced justice.

In 2009, the then Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, John Yates, described the case as the “most deplorable episode in the entire history of the Metropolitan Police Service”.

It has received a higher profile recently after being linked to journalists at the now defunct News of the World through the Leveson Inquiry.

Daniel’s private detective agency was used by the now defunct News of the World, and his former business partner, Jonathan Rees. Rees was hired by former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who went on to be Prime Minister David Cameron’s spin doctor before the phone-hacking scandal forced his resignation.

At the Leveson Inquiry former Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames, who worked for the television programme as a serving police officer, said that she believed she had been put under surveillance by the newspaper.

She said: “I believe the real reason for the News of the World placing us under surveillance was that suspects in the Daniel Morgan murder inquiry were using their association with a powerful and well-resourced newspaper to try and intimidate us and so attempt to subvert the investigation.”

Alastair, and his 84-year-old mother Isobel Hulsman, who lives in Wales, contacted to Ms May last August asking for a public inquiry into the failure to bring anyone to justice for the crime.

“Our solicitor wrote to Theresa May on the 3rd of August last year and she still hasn’t replied,” said Alastair. “It’s incumbent on her in law to respond to our request for a judicial inquiry. My mother is now 84 and very frail. It’s taken its mental toll for the last 25 years because the police and Home Office are so inept.

“We’re very worried about the links between the police and the News of the World. I just want to show Theresa May that we’re not going away and we want something done. I’ve been trying to use democracy for 25 years and it’s been useless.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “It is deeply regrettable that Daniel Morgan’s killers have not been brought to justice and we understand the strength of feeling this case has caused.

“The Home Secretary met with the Morgan family in December last year.

“We are carefully considering next steps.”

• An exhibition called Hacking and Smooching  opened  at the Bread and Butter pop up gallery in the Courtyard behind 133 Upper Street on Wednesday. It runs until September 5.