A delayed report about the murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan and subsequent police action has accused Scotland Yard of ‘a form of institutional corruption’.
Mr Morgan was killed with an axe to the head in a pub car park in south-east London in 1987.
Nobody has been brought to justice for murdering the father-of-two, despite five police inquiries and an inquest.
The report, published today, accused the Metropolitan Police of being more concerned with protecting itself as an organisation than acknowledging any failings.
It said: ‘The family of Daniel Morgan suffered grievously as a consequence of the failure to bring his family to justice, the unwarranted assurances which they were given, the misinformation which was put into the public domain, and the denial of failings in investigation, including failing to acknowledge professional competence, individuals’ venal behaviour, and managerial and organisational failures.
‘The Metropolitan Police also repeatedly failed to take a fresh, thorough and critical look at past failings.
‘Concealing or denying failings, for the sake of the organisation’s public image, is dishonesty on the part of the organisation for reputational benefit and constitutes a form of institutional corruption.’
In a statement through their lawyer, the family of Daniel Morgan said: ‘We welcome the recognition that we – and the public at large – have been failed over the decades by a culture of corruption and cover up in the Metropolitan Police, an institutionalised corruption that has permeated successive regimes in the Metropolitan Police and beyond to this day.’
The initial investigation into Mr Morgan’s death was criticised in the report, as the murder scene not searched and left unguarded, and no alibis were sought for all the suspects.
A later probe by Hampshire Police, brought in to investigate amid fears of corruption, was compromised when a senior Met officer was appointed to work with the team, the report said.
The report panel found that ‘police corruption did occur during the investigation of the murder of Daniel Morgan and was not confined to the first investigation’.
One example was in April 1987, when a plan to arrest a group of men including three serving police officers over the murder was leaked in advance, the report said.
The current Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, was criticised for her refusal to allow the panel team access to the HOLMES police data system.
The report said: ‘The Metropolitan Police’s lack of candour manifested itself in the hurdles placed in the path of the Panel, such as (then Assistant Commissioner) Cressida Dick’s initial refusal to recognise the necessity for the Panel to have access to the HOLMES system.’
Alastair Morgan, the brother of Daniel Morgan, who wrote in Metro.co.uk last month about the unsolved murder, said Ms Dick should ‘absolutely’ be considering her position in light of the report.
The family’s solicitor Raju Bhatt added: ‘You heard from the panel that the institutionalised corruption that they found is a current problem in the present tense.
‘The current leadership in the Met has to take responsibility for that continuing.’
Home Secretary Priti Patel told the Commons that the report was ‘deeply alarming’.
She said: ‘Police corruption is a betrayal of everything policing stands for in this country. It erodes public confidence in our entire criminal justice system. It undermines democracy and civilised society.
‘We look to the police to protect us and so they are invested with great power.’
Ms Patel said the ‘overwhelming majority’ of officers use this power honourably but criticised those who do ‘terrible harm’ by misusing it or who ‘indulge cover-up or ignore corruption’.
She went on: ‘This is one of the most devastating episodes in the history of the Metropolitan Police.’
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: ‘We deeply regret our failure to bring those who murdered Daniel Morgan to justice.’
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