Hacking scandal’s first victim?

While the hacking scandal is dominating the news, it’s worth remembering a gruesome south London murder 24 years ago.

Daniel Morgan, a 37 year-old private investigator, was hacked to death with an axe in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham. His brother Alastair believes that Daniel was killed to stop him exposing significant police corruption.

One of the suspects in the case was Morgan’s business partner Jonathan Rees, who exploited a network of police officers to sell stories to tabloid newspapers about the activities of celebrities, politicians and royalty. It is thought he was also able to hack into bank and phone accounts. It has even been suggested he commissioned burglars to gather material for scoops.

In 2000 Rees was arrested and jailed for six years for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice following a plot to plant cocaine on a model called Kim James. What happened when he was released from prison in 2004? He went to work for the News of the World, which was then edited by Andy Coulson.

Andy Coulson resigned in 2007 after the Royal Editor at the paper was jailed for hacking into the phones of the staff of Princes William and Harry. He then went to work as a ‘spin doctor’ for Prime Minister David Cameron until he was forced out in January 2011 because of new revelations about phone hacking.

There have been five investigations into the Daniel Morgan murder. It has now been admitted that the first was damaged by police corruption. The last one collapsed in March this year. The case remains unsolved.

Now that the Prime Minister has ordered public inquiries into the hacking scandal, we think it’s time one was ordered into the Daniel Morgan case.