Alastair Morgan speaking at our Campaigns for Justice Conference (2018)
Since his tragic murder in 1987, members of Daniel Morgan’s family – notably his brother Alastair – have been campaigning for justice for the last 35 years. Earlier this week, at least seventy documents, comprised of ninety-five pages, which should have been given to the official policing inspectorate, as part of the inquiry into Daniel’s murder, were found inside a locked cabinet inside the Metropolitan Police’s HQ in Scotland Yard. As a result of this discovery, calls for a reopening of or a fresh inquiry into the code of conduct within the Met have re-emerged. In this latest revelation, these documents were first discovered four months ago, in January 2023, a shocking 18 months after the inquiry report was published.
Daniel’s murder is an enormous stain on the Met’s history and reputation; and whilst they accept that corruption hindered the hunt for his killers, Morgan’s family believe those who took Daniel’s life had direct ties to corrupt police officers, as well as the disgraced and disbanded News of the World tabloid newspaper. In response to this latest discovery of documents, the Morgan family has questioned why it took the Met so long to notify them and the public, saying, ‘no explanation has been forthcoming as to why it took the Met over four months to inform us of this development.’ They added that ‘we were informed last night – by way of a letter from assistant commissioner Barbara Gray – that these documents had been ‘stored in a locked cabinet at New Scotland Yard following a handover between senior officers in 2014’ and accessed only when ‘the Met forced entry into this secure storage’ in January 2023.’
The Met described this discovery as ‘deeply unacceptable and regrettable.’ However, no amount of regret will suffice for the years of grief and hardship Alastair, and other members of Daniel’s family have endured. In response, the Morgan family said, ‘what we see here is precisely the kind of conduct that was identified as institutional corruption in the panel’s June 2021 report: the Met’s first objective remains to protect itself, concealing its failings for the sake of its public image and reputational benefit.’ Justice for Daniel is a campaign close to home within the GMB Union, and the North West & Irish region has been viciously vocal for several years about the scathing injustice Daniel and his family have been subject to. Alastair and his family are close friends of the region and union, and we always have, and always will, support him, until true justice for Daniel has been achieved.
Neil Smith, Political Officer
Shaun Nash, Campaigns & Communications
