thecrimeshop

London, UK Investigator found slain

Close to exposing massive police corruption

37-year old Daniel Morgan was a private investigator who was rumored to be very close to exposing the details of police corruption within the Metropolitan Police Service, London’s main police force.

His unsolved murder has been deeply tied to what some call the worst case of police corruption in over 50 years.

On March 10th, 1987, Daniel was found dead in the parking lot of  the Golden Lion pub, near his car in Sydenham, from what appeared to have been a blow to the back of the head by an ax.

Investigators quickly ruled out robbery as a motive because although his watch had been taken, his wallet along with a rather large sum of money were found on his person. Rather curiously it was found that a pocket on his pants was ripped open and other than his wallet, the only other items that were missing were the notes he had been seen taking earlier.

It would seem that Daniel stumbled across a rather interesting tidbit of intel, in that he had discovered drug related police corruption. Prior to his murder he had in fact been investigating the drug related corruption in south London…it is highly likely that he in fact tied some of the drug related corruption as well as, media conspiracy right back to his then partner Jonathan Rees.

It has been rumored that through the investigation police did find a DNA match to DNA on Daniels torn pants pocket however, police have been more than reluctant to confirm that. The rumor was at one time reported on by The Sun, a UK publication.

Even more strange, in April of 1987 a total of 6 individuals including Detective Sid Fillery who had been stationed at the Catford police station and who had been assigned the case, along with to Metropolitan police officers were arrested on suspicion of murder. They were all later released without charges it would seem.

Detective Fillery failed to mention to superiors that he had been working unofficially for Southern investigations which is the company that Daniel and his partner Jonathan Rees owned and operated.  

During one of the inquests into Daniel’s murder, it was revealed that he and his partner Jonathan did have quite a few disagreements. It was alleged that Jonathan had told an accountant with Southern Investigations, Kevin Lennon that police at the Catford police department were going to kill Daniel or arrange for his untimely death so that Sid Fillery could replace Daniel as Jonathan’s partner at the firm.  

An accusation Jonathan denied of course. Sid Fillery did however retire from the Metropolitan Police on medical grounds and subsequently did in fact, join Southern Investigations as Jonathan’s business partner.

Also, worth a mention that witnesses reported that Sid tampered with evidence and attempted to “interfere” with witnesses during inquests into Daniel’s murder.

The investigations into Daniel’s murder were anything but clean although police gave it some effort. As a result, 5 inquiries over a 20 year span were held, with still no conviction.

Allegations of police corruption, drug trafficking and robbery seemed to come up quite often during the inquests. Then, in December of 2000, it was discovered that Jonathan had been conspiring to plant cocaine on an innocent woman in an effort to discredit her in a child custody battle.

He was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, found guilty and then sentenced to 7 years in prison.  

Moving forward, between 2002–2003 a suspect’s car and Mr. Glenn Vian’s house were bugged the Metropolitan Police obtained evidence that linked a number of individuals to the murder, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided that the evidence was insufficient and decided against charging anyone.

So, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair declared that the first police inquiry that involved Sid was “compromised”, which led to the 5th secret inquiry.

As a result of the inquiry, police arrested Jonathan Rees and Sid Fillery once again, and this time, Glenn and Garry Vian and a builder, James Cook, all on suspicion of murder, as well as a serving police officer (Sid) suspected of leaking information. Additionally, Sid Fillery was also arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Yet, the case fell completely apart with each defendant, with the judge noting the complexity of the case leaving no one convicted of Daniel’s murder.

In 2011 it was learned that Jonathan had been supplying illegally obtained information with regards to individuals in the public eye to News of the World and he was being paid by News of the World for the illegally obtained information.

In October 2014 the Glenn and Garry Vian, along with Sid Fillery, Jonathan Rees and James Cook decided to launch a £4 million lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police.

Could Daniel’s murder ever be solved?

Evidence was tampered with, lies were told, not to mention that when a cop corrupts a case, the critical parts of it tend to go missing, forever.

The only hope would be that someone would tell the truth finally. The same individuals have been named during every single inquest, they have been in trouble for other crimes having to do with corruption, planting evidence as well as other illegal activity.

It would seem that Daniel was murdered because perhaps, he wanted to have an honest business that was responsible for conducting honest investigations.

Those that are responsible for his murder, they wanted the complete opposite of that and could not afford for him to go public with what he knew.

It was once stated that Daniel Morgan’s murder served  “as a reminder of the old police culture of corruption and unaccountably” in London.

Today, the case and it’s investigation are still living up to that reputation.

Cristal M Clark

IOS users can find The Crime Shop on Apple News

@thecrimeshop