originally by: The Guardian
11th March 2011

The family of Daniel Morgan leave the Old Bailey after three men are acquitted of charges over the 1987 murder of a private investigator who was found with an axe embedded in his head in a pub car park. Events as they unfolded following Daniel Morgan’s murder in 1987, as five separate police inquiries fail to identify his killers.

10 March 1987

Daniel Morgan’s body is found slumped by his BMW in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south London.

Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery, of Catford police station, is assigned to the case. He fails to tell his bosses he moonlighted for Southern Investigations.

April 1987

Six people, including Fillery, Jonathan Rees – Morgan’s former business partner – Glenn Vian, Garry Vian, and two other Met officers are arrested on suspicion of the murder. No charges are brought and all six are released.

1988

Staff from Southern Investigations are called to give evidence at an inquest at Southwark coroner’s court. Kevin Lennon, who worked as an accountant, tells the inquest he had watched Rees’s relationship with Morgan deteriorate.

Lennon says Rees told him six months before the murder that he had found the perfect solution to the problem: “My mates at Catford nick are going to arrange it. Those police officers are friends of mine and will either murder Danny themselves or will arrange it.”

Rees is asked if he murdered Daniel Morgan. He replies: “I did not.” The inquest returns a verdict of unlawful killing.

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