Daniel Morgan was found with an axe in his head in a pub car park on 10 March 1987 The family of private detective Daniel Morgan has called for a judicial inquiry after his multi-million pound murder case collapsed on the 24th anniversary of his death.
Mr Morgan, 37, was found with an axe in his head in a pub car park on 10 March 1987, in a case which has become one of Britain’s longest unsolved murders.
No-one has been brought to justice despite five police inquiries.
Mr Morgan’s family said: “The criminal justice system is not fit for purpose.”
Unofficial estimates put the cost of five police inquiries and three years of legal hearings at about £30m.
Mr Morgan, a father-of-two from Monmouthshire, was found with an axe embedded in his skull outside the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south-east London, in March 1987.
Five people were arrested in 2008 but two, including a former detective accused of perverting the course of justice, were discharged after a string of supergrasses were discredited.
Behind the headline figure of £30m spent on a police investigation and legal expenses is the human cost.
In the early 1990s, while working on a weekly newspaper, I met Daniel Morgan’s brother, Alistair, who came in to do work experience. Over the years I have spoken to him several times.
He and his elderly mother, Isobel, will be devastated at this latest turn of events.
The trial was due to start last year but was delayed by legal argument as the defence sought more disclosure about the evidence.
As witness after witness was undermined and more and more was disclosed about the police investigation, prosecutor Nicholas Hilliard QC resembled a man carrying a box full of sand with a hole in the bottom.
Reporters at the Old Bailey were unable to report any of the proceedings until now because of the increasingly slim chance that a trial would take place in the spring.
Now the CPS has finally thrown the towel in and the mystery of who killed Daniel Morgan will remain unsolved.
The Crown Prosecution Service has now dropped the case against the remaining three people – Mr Morgan’s former business partner Jonathan Rees and brothers Garry and Glenn Vian.
Mr Morgan’s brother Alistair, 62, said: “My family is devastated by this news.
“We put some flowers on the grave. It’s just horrible.”
He said he believes there have been a number of police cover-ups over the years and alleges that his brother was murdered because he was about to expose police corruption.
“It was obvious my brother was going to blow the lid off the links between the police and criminals,” he added.
A family spokesman said: “His family have seen that the criminal justice system is simply not fit for purpose to address the crime with which they have been required to live over the last two-and-a-half decades.
“So they have been left with no option but to call upon the Home Secretary today to order a full judicial inquiry into the handling of the case by the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).”
Alistair Morgan added: “For almost a quarter of a century, my family has done everything democratically and legally possible to secure justice for Daniel.
“For much of this time, we have encountered stubborn obstruction, and worse, at the highest levels of the Metropolitan Police.
“We have found an impotent police complaints system.
“And we have met with inertia, or worse, on the part of successive governments.
“We have been failed utterly by all of the institutions designed to protect us.”
But he said those responsible for the present inquiry and prosecution had done their best “to redress the catastrophic failures of earlier investigations”.
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