Thread by @flaminhaystacks

*THREAD *

Daniel Morgan was born in Singapore on 3 November 1949

He worked as a salesman and travel guide, settling in Norwood, London, in his late 20s, married with a wife and two children.

#DanielMorgan

In January 1977, Daniel decided to put his exceptional memory for details to use by setting up his own detective agency

On the night of his death, Daniel had a drink with his partner, Jonathan Rees, at the Golden Lion pub before heading to his BMW to return home.

#DanielMorgan

He was found dead shortly after leaving the pub, slumped beside the car with an axe wound in the back of his head

Notes he had been seen writing earlier had been stolen from the torn trouser pockets of his suit

It was rumoured he was about to expose corruption at Scotland Yard

Catford police station assigned
Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery to work on the murder case

They were unaware that Sid Fillery had been moonlighting at Daniel's detective agency off the books and had plans to replace Daniel

#DanielMorgan

Jonathan Rees allegedly told their accountant, Kevin Lennon, that friends of his within the local police force were going to murder Daniel so that Sid Fillery could replace him as Rees’s business partner

#DanielMorgan

My mates at Catford nick are going to arrange it,” Kevin claimed Jonathan had told him.

“Those police officers are friends of mine and will either murder Danny themselves or will arrange it.”

#DanielMorgan

Sid Fillery retired from the police force on medical grounds

He went on to take the place of Daniel Morgan and become a business partner in the private investigation company

That same summer, Police Constable Alan, who was alleged to have been collaborating with Daniel Morgan on exposing police corruption, was suddenly found dead in mysterious circumstances

Between 1988 & 2006, five inquiries were conducted into Daniel Morgan’s murder

Jonathan Rees, an associate, Paul Goodridge & girlfriend Jean Wisden, charged with perverting the course of justice

All charges were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service for lack of evidence

Jonathan Rees was however found guilty of planting cocaine on an innocent woman to discredit her during a child custody battle in 2000 and sentenced to seven years in prison

He then started working for News of the World

Jonathan Rees and local police officer, Sidney Fillery, went on to reposition the firm, selling police information to Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World and to the Mirror Group

From the late 1980s, after Daniel Morgan’s ’s murder, the firm got “a substantial proportion” of business income from selling “confidential information” obtained from police sources.

The former bookkeeper said the News of the World and the Mirror Group were their main clients

There was “extensive evidence” of police officers meeting Sid Fillery and Jonathan Rees “in various public houses” even after both men named “had been arrested and continued to be suspects” for the murder.

On occasions at these meetings, Daniel Morgan’s murder was discussed.

Jonathan Rees, the Vian brothers and builder James Cook were arrested in April 2008 on suspicion of murder.

Sid Fillery, ex police officer, was also arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice

Their trial at the Old Bailey collapsed in March 2011 following “serious disclosure failures” by the Met, and the passage of time and sequence of events mean that the case is unlikely ever to be resolved in court.

Jonathan Rees, Sid Fillery, James Cook and the Vian brothers launched a £4 million lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police for malicious prosecution in October 2014.

Sid Fillery was awarded £25,000 in damages by the High Court in April 2017

Jonathan Rees and the Vians lost their case

They appealed and eventually won damages of £414,000 in 2019

Theresa May announced a new independent inquiry in 2013 looking into unanswered questions relating to the murder

Poor police handling, the role corruption possibly played in protecting Morgan’s killer and links between private eyes, police & journalists connected to the case

The Daniel Morgan Independent Panel concluded in 2022 that the force’s “first objective was to protect itself” against allegations that corrupt officers were involved in the murder.

The report said that severe failings in the initial investigation

The crime scene was not searched and left unguarded

Interviews were not properly carried out

Suspects were forewarned of their arrests which meant that potential evidence had been “irretrievably lost”.

The panel complained about the then assistant commissioner’s “initial refusal” to provide access to the Holmes police investigation database which was vital for reviewing the previous failed enquiries

They also “limited access to the most sensitive information”.

Documents were not made available at the panel’s “secure premises” and were only accessible at a location “involving considerable travel time”.

The panel blamed foot-dragging by the Met for the length of time it took to complete the inquiry from its inception in 2013.

The panel’s chairwoman, Baroness Nuala O’Loan, said Scotland Yard had not acknowledged or confronted its failings and showed a “lack of candour”.

“They were not honest in their dealings with Mr Morgan’s family or the public,” she said

"We believe that concealing or denying failings for the sake of an organisation’s public image is dishonesty on the part of the organisation for reputational benefit, and constitutes a form of institutional corruption,” she added.

In January 2023, more than 150 documents that should have been disclosed to inquiries about the Met's handling of the case of Daniel Morgan were found locked in an old cabinet.

#DanielMorgan

Daniel had complained to his brother @AlastairMorgan that he was doing all the agency’s work while Rees lounged in pubs with his masonic “bent copper” mates

David was overheard to shout he was opposed to hiring officers of Fillerys sort because they reflected badly on the agency

David Morgan was about to expose a case of extensive drug-related police corruption implicating Jonathan Rees, Sid Fillery and other South London Met officers.

Kevin Lennon, the bookkeeper, testified that Rees & his Catford Met contacts had arranged a £1000 contract for Morgan’s murder.

‘I’ve got it fixed’, Rees reportedly told Lennon 6 months before the murder.

The killing was to be staged within the jurisdiction of Catford

That way, the officers involved could suppress damaging evidence linking them

Incredibly, not one strand of forensic evidence was found to implicate anyone

“No blood. No fibres. No fingerprints”, said the coroner

Sid Fillery now runs a pub in Great Yarmouth

Jonathan Rees lives with his mistress in Weybridge, Surrey

The News of the World closed down in 2011 following revelations of phone hacking in which Jonathan Rees was implicated.

Lord Stevens, Met Dep Commissioner authorised a listening device in Rees’s detective agency in the late 90s

He was asked whether he was aware News of the World was using Rees's detective agency to obtain information about police officers illegally

He denied knowing anything

Lord Stevens became a columnist for the News of the World after he retired from the Met Police force

Andy Hayman former
Assistant Commissioner for specialist operations at the Met

Hayman worked within the Met’s directorate of professional standards responsible for complaints & corruption

Hayman oversaw Scotland Yard’s original 2006 investigation into phone hacking

Hayman must have been aware that phone hacking was a serious matter and that parts of the press were recipients of confidential information being supplied

When he retired from the Met, he took up a job as a columnist, contributing to the Times

Det Ch Supt David Cook supervised the fifth and final investigation into the murder of Morgan.

The charges brought against Rees and others collapsed in 2011 because it emerged Cook had coached two so-called “supergrass” witnesses, upon which the prosecution relied.