Detective Chief superintendent David Cook (left) was allegedly under surveillance by News of the World during an investigation into the murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan (right)
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
#Freemason Judge Richard Hone QC...throws out key witness in murder trial.
Scroll down to page 10 on PDF for Brother Freemason Judge Richard Hone QC
http://danielmorganmurderedbythemet.blogspot.com/2011/09/httpwww_19.html
http://www.grandcharity.org/data/files/NEWSITE/PUBLICATIONS/GEN_MEETING_PAPERS/AGM_June_2011.pdf
http://danielmorganmurderedbythemet.blogspot.com/2011/09/httpwww_19.html
http://www.grandcharity.org/data/files/NEWSITE/PUBLICATIONS/GEN_MEETING_PAPERS/AGM_June_2011.pdf
Hitman Murder Trial Collapses after Judge rejects Evidence from Key Witness !
Scotland Yard was left humiliated again today when the evidence of one of its most important supergrasses of the past decade was rejected by an Old Bailey judge.
Then no evidence was offered against the alleged killers after three star witnesses, including Michael Eaton, were found to be totally unreliable.
Now a second trial based on Eaton's allegations that Mandy Fleming had hired a hitman to kill her rich husband in 2004 has also been dropped.
Fleming did admit drilling holes in Adam Fleming's £90,000 luxury cruiser which sank in Brighton marina on Valentine's Day 2004. But In both cases the trial judge ruled that Eaton - described as a pathological liar with a history of psychiatric illness - was incapable of being believed.
A total of seven people have now walked free of murder charges after Eaton was proved to be a worthless witness.
Yet in 2008 Eaton had been rewarded for giving evidence in these trials with 25 years being cut from the prison sentence he would have received for his own crimes - and has since been released.
In a judgement which can be revealed for the first time today, Judge Richard Hone condemned Eaton as "not just unreliable but false and highly dangerous."
"Eaton is capable of inventing detailed accounts of events which never happened and shows either blatant untruthfulness or alternatively a component of his personality disorder typified by folie de grandeur and self aggrandisment," he said in a withering 12 page judgment.
"By the time the summing up of Eaton's evidence of unreliability, fabrication and fantasy had concluded it would be impossible to find a sufficient bedrock of truth upon which a jury could convict any of the defendants."
Eaton, who also called himself Gary Smith, has been convicted of 30 offences, including thieving from a blind woman, and violence to his ex-partner Christine Kirby.
"It is evident that he has pride in a reputation for being a violent person," said Judge Hone. In 2008 he pleaded guilty to 20 offences - and asked for 32 more to be taken into consideration - including conspiracy to murder, bribing police officers, blackmail, firearms, burglaries and cocaine dealing.
At the Old Bailey, Judge Gerald Gordon described the case as unique and reduced a 28-year sentence to just three years because he had agreed to give evidence in the other trials.
Eaton's barrister Sarah Forshaw QC said he had put his life on the line to "clear his conscience."
"He had nothing to gain and everything to lose," she told the court. But when his evidence was produced in court psychiatrist Prof Nigel Eastman said Eaton had spent a long time in mental health care and had a personality disorder.
He described Eaton's "pointless lies... deviousness... unsubstantiated claims" and his ability "to lie well beyond an ordinary person."
He once told so many people that his mother had died that he persuaded them to contribute to her funeral. In fact she was alive and well and he was visiting her regularly.
In the Fleming case Eaton's statements were so full of lies he called called her Denise and not Mandy and mistook the address of his alleged target whom he thought was Irish when he was from the east end of London.
He also repeatedly changed his mind over the make of gun he had bought to carry out the hit and even the size of the contract he would have earned.
He claimed at one stage that he was at the heart of the conspiracy at a time when he was an in patient at a pscychiatric hosptial.
Finally he claimed he called the whole shooting off after he had sat in a Mitcham pub with Mr Fleming and found out he was "a nice chap."
Today Judge Hone ruled that charges against Mandy Fleming, 57 of Sheerness, and her then lover David Brown 50 of Sherness who had all denied conspiring with Gary Eaton to murder Adam Fleming between January 2004 and June 2006 should lie on the file.
Prosecutors offered no evidence on the same charge against Bradley Hanson, 27, of Littlehampton, W Sussex.
Mandy Fleming pleaded guilty to damaging her husband's Double Dragon luxury cruiser being reckless as to whether life would be endangered. She will be sentenced on this charge next month.
No evidence was also offered against David Camp, 67 of Shirley, Croydon, who had denied selling a prohibited weapon, a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, to Eaton between October 2004 and July 2006.
Adam Fleming, 45 of Mitcham, has started a civil action in the High Court claiming £55,000 for damage to his boat from his ex wife. The couple had met in Wales in the mid-1990s and were married on Turtle Bay Beach, Florida in 2002.
But after she started her affair with Mr Brown Mr Fleming sued for divorce which was finalised in July 2005. Fleming and Brown have since split up.
No one has been brought to justice for the Morgan murder 24 years ago. the victim was killed when hatchet was buried in his head in the car park of the Golden Lion in Sydenham.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23988753-second-hitman-murder-trial-collapses-after-judge-rejects-evidence-from-key-witness.do
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Bernard Hogan-Howe meeting with the Daniel Morgan family.
Transcript of the meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority held on
Thursday, 28 July 2011 at 10am in the Chamber, City Hall, SE1.http://www.mpa.gov.uk/downloads/committees/mpa/110728-transcript.pdf
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
#hackgate #Freemasons run the MET and explains why Jonathan Rees became a Mason...
Jonathan Rees obtained information using dark artsFreemason set up network of corrupt police, customs officials, taxmen and bank staff to gain valuable information
http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com/2011/09/hackgate-met-freemasons-listed-in-this.html
http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com/2011/09/hackgate-met-freemasons-listed-in-this.html
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
' BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION -- THE DAWNING OF BENT COPS '
' The Corruption that never goes away '
DESPITE 800 POLICE OFFICERS FORCED TO LEAVE and a Commander jailed, the clean up of corruption leaves a lot to be desired. Using a dirty cloth to remove the stains only leads to a murky patch that waits to be whitewashed over or ignored as something permanent and part of the design. The Infamous porn squad was disbanded due to the discovery of top senior officers in the unit having links to Soho sleaze bosses who bribed them. Even the setting up of new squads to tackle that problem only led to cracks and more revelations about bent cops emerging in the new 'clean up' The former 'Operation Countryman' cost £4million and failed as we have already mentioned - its conviction rate on bent cops was abysmal despite the uncovering of hundreds of likely suspects who obstructed the investigation. In the 90's ' Operation Jackpot' was launched to combat corruption -- two officers were jailed and another caught in a £2million cannabis ring. JOHN DONALD a Senior Officer of the Regional Crime Squad was caught selling secrets to underworld crime leaders and was jailed for 11 years. A score of other officers were investigated but never charged despite rumours of around 250 officers taking payments from crime bosses being publicly talked about and boasted about by cops in Scotland Yard....much much more at link.
http://www.bentlawyersandcops.com/featured_cops.htm
#Hackgate #NOTW Jonathan Rees the FREEMASON
Years ago, Jonathan Rees became a freemason. According to journalists and investigators who worked with him, he then exploited his link with the lodges to meet masonic police officers who illegally sold him information which he peddled to Fleet Street.
As one of Britain’s most prolific merchants of secrets, Rees expanded his network of sources by recruiting as his business partner Sid Fillery, a heavy-handed, heavy-drinking detective sergeant from the Metropolitan Police. Fillery added more officers to their network. Rees also boasted of recruiting corrupt Customs officers, a corrupt VAT inspector and two corrupt bank employees.
Other police contacts are said to have been blackmailed into providing confidential information. One of Rees’ former associates claims that Rees had compromising photographs of serving officers, including one who was caught in a drunken coma with a couple of prostitutes and with a toilet seat around his neck.
It is this network of corruption which lies at the heart of yesterday’s (Wed) claim in the House of Commons by Labour MP Tom Watson that Rees was targeting politicians, members of the royal family and even terrorist informers on behalf of Rupert Murdoch’s News International. Guardian inquiries suggest that Watson knows what he is talking about.
Much of what the police sources were able to sell to Rees was directly related to crime. But Rees also bought and sold confidential data on anybody who was of interest to his Fleet Street clients, to which the police often had special access. The Guardian has confirmed that Rees reinforced his official contacts with two specialist ‘blaggers’ who would telephone the Inland Revenue, the DVLA, banks and phone companies and trick them into handing over private data.
One of the blaggers who regularly worked for him, John Gunning, was responsible for obtaining details of bank accounts belonging to Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex, which were then sold to the Sunday Mirror.
Gunning was later convicted of illegally obtaining confidential data from British Telecom. Rees also obtained details of accounts at Coutts Bank belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Kent. The bank accounts of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, are also thought to have been compromised.
The Guardian has been told that Rees spoke openly about obtaining confidential data belonging to senior politicians and recorded their names in his paperwork. One source close to Rees claims that apart from Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell, he also targeted Gaynor Regan, who became the second wife of the foreign secretary Robin Cook; the former shadow home secretary Gerald Kaufman; and the former Tory minister David Mellor.
It is not yet known precisely what Rees was doing to obtain information on these political targets although in the case of Peter Mandelson, it appears that Rees acquired confidential details of two bank accounts which he held at Coutts, and his building society account at Britannia. Rees is also said to have targeted the bank accounts of members of Mandelson’s family.
An investigator who worked for Rees claims he was also occasionally commissioning burglaries of public figures to steal material for newspapers.
Southern Investigations has previously been implicated in handling paperwork which was stolen by a professional burglar from the safe of Paddy Ashdown’s lawyer, when Ashdown was leader of the Liberal Democrats. The paperwork, which was eventually obtained by the News of the World, recorded Ashdown discussing his fears that newspapers might expose an affair with his secretary.
The succesful hacking of a computer belonging to the former British intelligence officer Ian Hurst was achieved in July 2006 by sending Hurst an email containing a Trojan programme which copied Hurst’s emails and relayed them to the hacker. This included messages he had exchanged with at least two agents who informed on the Provisional IRA – Freddie Scapaticci, codenamed Stakeknife; and a second informant known as Kevin Fulton. Both men were regarded as high-risk targets for assassination. Hurst was one of the very few people who knew their whereabouts. The hacker cannot be named for legal reasons.
There would be further security concern if evidence finally confirms strong claims by those close to Rees that he claimed to have targeted the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, who would have had regular access to highly sensitive intelligence. Sir John’s successor, Sir Ian Blair, is believed to have been targeted by the News of the World’s full-time investigstor, Glenn Mulcaire. Assistant commissioner John Yates was targeted by Rees when Yates was running inquiries into police corruption in the late 1990s. It appears that Yates did not realise that he himself had been a target when he was responsible for the policing of the phone-hacking affair between July 2009 and January 2011.
Targeting the Bank of England, Rees is believed to have earned thousands of pounds by penetrating the past or present mortgage accounts of the then governor, Eddie George; his deputy, Mervyn King, who is now governor; and half-a-dozen other members of the Monetary Policy Committee.
Rees carried out his trade for years. His career as a peddlar of privacy stretches back into the 1990s, when he worked assiduously for the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the News of the World. Rees and Fillery had three key media contacts, some of whose conversations with them were recorded by a police bug in their south London office: Doug Kempster from the Sunday Mirror who was recorded wittily suggesting that “Asians look better dead”; Gary Jones from the Daily Mirror who was recorded as Rees told him that some of what he was doing for the Mirror was illegal; and Alex Marunchak, the executive editor of the News of the World.
This lucrative career was crudely interrupted in September 1999 when Rees was arrested and then jailed for plotting to plant cocaine on a woman so that her ex-husband would get custody of her children. Sid Fillery similarly ran into trouble with the long of the arm of the law which he was so keen to twist. He was arrested, convicted for possession of indecent images of children and retreated to Norfolk to run a pub. Rees, however, emerged from prison in May 2004 and proceeded to carry on trading, this time exclusively for the News of the World, then being edited by Andy Coulson, who went on to become David Cameron’s media adviser.
The scale and seriousness of Rees’ activities have worrying implications for Operation Weeting, the Scotland Yard inquiry which finally – unlike its two predecessors – is making a robust attempt to get to the truth of the scandal. They have been told to focus on one private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire; on one illegal technique, phone-hacking; which he deployed for the one newspaper which paid him on a full-time contract, the News of the World. That alone is consuming the full-time efforts of 45 officers.
The truth is that Mulcaire was only one of a dozen different investigators, many of whom used other illegal techniques. And the News of the World, as journalists all over Fleet Street know, was not the only enthusiastic employer of these dark arts. Mulcaire and his phone-hacking became the single focus through the simple fluke that he was clumsy enough to get caught interfering with the voicemail of the royal household – the one target which would finally move the police into taking on a Fleet Street paper. The police famously failed to look beyond him, and it is only now that the rest of the truth is beginning to emerge.
With the new disclosures of Rees’ operation, there will be pressure on Weeting to expand its inquiry, which would involve recruiting still more officers. And, in the background, there is a small queue of other investigators waiting to have their names – along with their Fleet Street clients – added to Weeting’s list of suspects.
High among them will be a former Metropolitan Police detective who was accused of corruption in the early 1980s and forced out of his job after a disciplinary hearing. Senior Yard sources say that this detective then came up with a novel form of revenge. He acquired a press card and proceeded to act as a link between Fleet Street crime correspondents and the network of corrupt detectives he knew so well.
Former crime reporters from several national newspapers have told the Guardian that they used this detective to carry cash bribes – thousands of pounds in brown envelopes – to serving officers. Scotland Yard for years have been aware of his activity and have attempted but failed to catch him and stop him. The crime reporters say that one reason for the Yard’s failure is that, when the Yard tried to stop the corruption, serving officers tipped them off so they could evade detection.
And there is more. The Guardian has identfied a total of eleven specialist ‘blaggers’ who were paid by wealthy clients, including Fleet Street newspapers, to steal medical records, bank statemets, itemised phone bills, tax files and anything else which was both confidential and
http://www.nickdavies.net/2011/07/08/the-nows-merchant-of-secrets/
http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com/2011/09/hackgate-freemasons-in-metmurdered.html
IMAGE FREEMASONS...
As one of Britain’s most prolific merchants of secrets, Rees expanded his network of sources by recruiting as his business partner Sid Fillery, a heavy-handed, heavy-drinking detective sergeant from the Metropolitan Police. Fillery added more officers to their network. Rees also boasted of recruiting corrupt Customs officers, a corrupt VAT inspector and two corrupt bank employees.
Other police contacts are said to have been blackmailed into providing confidential information. One of Rees’ former associates claims that Rees had compromising photographs of serving officers, including one who was caught in a drunken coma with a couple of prostitutes and with a toilet seat around his neck.
It is this network of corruption which lies at the heart of yesterday’s (Wed) claim in the House of Commons by Labour MP Tom Watson that Rees was targeting politicians, members of the royal family and even terrorist informers on behalf of Rupert Murdoch’s News International. Guardian inquiries suggest that Watson knows what he is talking about.
Much of what the police sources were able to sell to Rees was directly related to crime. But Rees also bought and sold confidential data on anybody who was of interest to his Fleet Street clients, to which the police often had special access. The Guardian has confirmed that Rees reinforced his official contacts with two specialist ‘blaggers’ who would telephone the Inland Revenue, the DVLA, banks and phone companies and trick them into handing over private data.
One of the blaggers who regularly worked for him, John Gunning, was responsible for obtaining details of bank accounts belonging to Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex, which were then sold to the Sunday Mirror.
Gunning was later convicted of illegally obtaining confidential data from British Telecom. Rees also obtained details of accounts at Coutts Bank belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Kent. The bank accounts of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, are also thought to have been compromised.
The Guardian has been told that Rees spoke openly about obtaining confidential data belonging to senior politicians and recorded their names in his paperwork. One source close to Rees claims that apart from Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell, he also targeted Gaynor Regan, who became the second wife of the foreign secretary Robin Cook; the former shadow home secretary Gerald Kaufman; and the former Tory minister David Mellor.
It is not yet known precisely what Rees was doing to obtain information on these political targets although in the case of Peter Mandelson, it appears that Rees acquired confidential details of two bank accounts which he held at Coutts, and his building society account at Britannia. Rees is also said to have targeted the bank accounts of members of Mandelson’s family.
An investigator who worked for Rees claims he was also occasionally commissioning burglaries of public figures to steal material for newspapers.
Southern Investigations has previously been implicated in handling paperwork which was stolen by a professional burglar from the safe of Paddy Ashdown’s lawyer, when Ashdown was leader of the Liberal Democrats. The paperwork, which was eventually obtained by the News of the World, recorded Ashdown discussing his fears that newspapers might expose an affair with his secretary.
The succesful hacking of a computer belonging to the former British intelligence officer Ian Hurst was achieved in July 2006 by sending Hurst an email containing a Trojan programme which copied Hurst’s emails and relayed them to the hacker. This included messages he had exchanged with at least two agents who informed on the Provisional IRA – Freddie Scapaticci, codenamed Stakeknife; and a second informant known as Kevin Fulton. Both men were regarded as high-risk targets for assassination. Hurst was one of the very few people who knew their whereabouts. The hacker cannot be named for legal reasons.
There would be further security concern if evidence finally confirms strong claims by those close to Rees that he claimed to have targeted the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, who would have had regular access to highly sensitive intelligence. Sir John’s successor, Sir Ian Blair, is believed to have been targeted by the News of the World’s full-time investigstor, Glenn Mulcaire. Assistant commissioner John Yates was targeted by Rees when Yates was running inquiries into police corruption in the late 1990s. It appears that Yates did not realise that he himself had been a target when he was responsible for the policing of the phone-hacking affair between July 2009 and January 2011.
Targeting the Bank of England, Rees is believed to have earned thousands of pounds by penetrating the past or present mortgage accounts of the then governor, Eddie George; his deputy, Mervyn King, who is now governor; and half-a-dozen other members of the Monetary Policy Committee.
Rees carried out his trade for years. His career as a peddlar of privacy stretches back into the 1990s, when he worked assiduously for the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the News of the World. Rees and Fillery had three key media contacts, some of whose conversations with them were recorded by a police bug in their south London office: Doug Kempster from the Sunday Mirror who was recorded wittily suggesting that “Asians look better dead”; Gary Jones from the Daily Mirror who was recorded as Rees told him that some of what he was doing for the Mirror was illegal; and Alex Marunchak, the executive editor of the News of the World.
This lucrative career was crudely interrupted in September 1999 when Rees was arrested and then jailed for plotting to plant cocaine on a woman so that her ex-husband would get custody of her children. Sid Fillery similarly ran into trouble with the long of the arm of the law which he was so keen to twist. He was arrested, convicted for possession of indecent images of children and retreated to Norfolk to run a pub. Rees, however, emerged from prison in May 2004 and proceeded to carry on trading, this time exclusively for the News of the World, then being edited by Andy Coulson, who went on to become David Cameron’s media adviser.
The scale and seriousness of Rees’ activities have worrying implications for Operation Weeting, the Scotland Yard inquiry which finally – unlike its two predecessors – is making a robust attempt to get to the truth of the scandal. They have been told to focus on one private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire; on one illegal technique, phone-hacking; which he deployed for the one newspaper which paid him on a full-time contract, the News of the World. That alone is consuming the full-time efforts of 45 officers.
The truth is that Mulcaire was only one of a dozen different investigators, many of whom used other illegal techniques. And the News of the World, as journalists all over Fleet Street know, was not the only enthusiastic employer of these dark arts. Mulcaire and his phone-hacking became the single focus through the simple fluke that he was clumsy enough to get caught interfering with the voicemail of the royal household – the one target which would finally move the police into taking on a Fleet Street paper. The police famously failed to look beyond him, and it is only now that the rest of the truth is beginning to emerge.
With the new disclosures of Rees’ operation, there will be pressure on Weeting to expand its inquiry, which would involve recruiting still more officers. And, in the background, there is a small queue of other investigators waiting to have their names – along with their Fleet Street clients – added to Weeting’s list of suspects.
High among them will be a former Metropolitan Police detective who was accused of corruption in the early 1980s and forced out of his job after a disciplinary hearing. Senior Yard sources say that this detective then came up with a novel form of revenge. He acquired a press card and proceeded to act as a link between Fleet Street crime correspondents and the network of corrupt detectives he knew so well.
Former crime reporters from several national newspapers have told the Guardian that they used this detective to carry cash bribes – thousands of pounds in brown envelopes – to serving officers. Scotland Yard for years have been aware of his activity and have attempted but failed to catch him and stop him. The crime reporters say that one reason for the Yard’s failure is that, when the Yard tried to stop the corruption, serving officers tipped them off so they could evade detection.
And there is more. The Guardian has identfied a total of eleven specialist ‘blaggers’ who were paid by wealthy clients, including Fleet Street newspapers, to steal medical records, bank statemets, itemised phone bills, tax files and anything else which was both confidential and
http://www.nickdavies.net/2011/07/08/the-nows-merchant-of-secrets/
http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com/2011/09/hackgate-freemasons-in-metmurdered.html
IMAGE FREEMASONS...
#MET #Freemasons still keeping their secrets.(archive)
Police officers and crown prosecutors face being forced by law to disclose their membership of the freemasons and other secret societies after attempts get them to register voluntarily have flopped.
One force, South Wales, has a register for high ranking officers only. Seven others say they have plans for registers, including the Metropolitan police, where the commissioner, Sir Paul Condon, has attacked police membership.
However, that still leaves 32 forces yet to take action.
A similar exercise in which registration forms were sent to 2,097 crown prosecution service lawyers has produced nine declarations of membership and two of the nine said they had let their lodge membership lapse. Some 992 CPS lawyers, or nearly half of those asked, either refused to say whether they were freemasons or did not return the form.
Evidence that freemasonry is still a problem emerged in a police corruption trial last month in which a former officer was jailed for attempting to abuse his masonic connections within the Met.
Among judges and magistrates, the voluntary drive to persuade the masons to register has proved more successful. The lord chancellor, Lord Irvine, invited those presiding over the courts to declare whether they were freemasons. The latest available figures show that 263 judges have admitted they are masons; some 4,744 have stated they are not.
A further 70 refused to disclose whether they were members, and 213 others did not respond to Lord Irvine's invitation.
The response among the 25,000 magistrates has been even better.
Some 1,208 magistrates have declared they are masons, 20,300 have signed a statement that they are not, and 599 have refused to say. Some 2,857 did not reply.
Chris Mullin, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, whose inquiry initiated this drive, said: 'I recognise there are some practical difficulties, but it is clear that there is a great deal of foot dragging going on especially among the police and the CPS.'
Mr Mullin added: 'Were the masons to cooperate, they would dispel a lot of illusions. By not cooperating they create the impression that they have something to hide, which is not necessarily the case.'
The home secretary, Jack Straw, wrote to all chief constables at the beginning of April reminding them of the request to set up voluntary registers, but, although the majority of chief constables are in favour of their creation in principle, it is unlikely any firm numbers will emerge before October.
In future, all recruits to the police, the judiciary, the CPS lawyers, and the probation and the prison services will have to make a declaration as a condition of service.
Mr Straw has said he will make a final decision on the need for legislation to enforce disclosure once the extent of compliance with the voluntary registers becomes clear.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1999/may/04/alantravis
#Met #Freemasons and Daniel Morgans concern.
The Guardian have removed all images of their SCOOP from January 1997 , images of FREEMASONS in the MET., so much for Nick Davies and his honest reporting . This article is from the Independent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/a-secret-service-5000-masons-meet-behind-closed-doors-to-set-up-capitals-grand-lodge-581880.html
To the untrained eye it looked like a convention of dry cleaners - thousands of middle-aged men in dark suits milling around outside a London landmark all carrying identical plastic suit carriers.
To the untrained eye it looked like a convention of dry cleaners - thousands of middle-aged men in dark suits milling around outside a London landmark all carrying identical plastic suit carriers.
The only clue to the true identity of the 5,000 individuals who squeezed into the Royal Albert Hall yesterday was the gold lettering printed on the side of each of the dry cleaning-style blue bags: "Metropolitan Grand Lodge and Metropolitan Grand Chapter of London. October 1st 2003."
The largest gathering of Britain's freemasons in more than a decade was a suitably discrete affair. The day-long ceremony in the famous concert hall marked the formation of a new central organisation for the capital's 1,585 lodges.
For, despite a comprehensive effort to dispel its image as a secretive brotherhood dedicated to protecting the mutual interests of its rolled trouser-legged membership, the masonic movement still prefers to conduct its business behind closed doors.
To the satisfaction of many of those waiting to attend the second of the day's ceremonies, headed by the Duke of Kent, who as Grand Master is Britain's top mason, the Home Office yesterday confirmed it has dropped plans to require all freemasons in the police service and criminal justice system to identify themselves.
Robert Taylor, 47, a "legal professional" and a mason for 14 years, who was technically committing a breach of masonic tradition by allowing an amount of purple silk brocade and gold from his ceremonial apron to spill out from his commemorative suit carrier as he waited outside the hall (regalia can only be worn inside a lodge meeting), said: "I have no problems with being a mason and saying so but if you are saying that someone has to declare it by law, then that implies there is something wrong or dodgy about it."
Home Office sources confirmed that the compulsory registration scheme, proposed after a parliamentary select committee found in 2000 that there had been cases of improper masonic influence in the criminal justice system, was dropped after the United Grand Lodge, the umbrella body for freemasons in England Wales, claimed it would breach the Human Rights Act.
But ministers are to continue to press the issue with police chiefs after a voluntary scheme put in place by Jack Straw when he was Home Secretary recorded rates of registration for police officers far below those of 88 per cent for magistrates and 96 per cent for judges. Ten of Britain's 43 police forces refused to take part.
A Home Office spokesman said: "There are no current plans for compulsory disclosure. But discussions are continuing with the Association of Chief Police Officers to find other methods of resolving the problem of under-registration."
Those representing the 300,000 freemasons in England and Wales have been at pains to improve its public image after decades of secrecy, throwing open the doors of many the country's lodges during a nationwide open day last year.
Although the cliché about rolled up trouser legs still holds true for some ceremonies, the United Grand Lodge points to modernisations - for example, the threat to slit the throat of any member who betrays masonic principles has been dropped.
Perhaps more importantly, it also adds that the brotherhood raised £24m for charity last year and has given out £100m in the past five years, making charitable fund-raising and giving its principle activity. Despite the preponderance of white middle-class males outside the Albert Hall, organisers also believe that their level of ethnic membership is in line with the general population - 7.5 per cent - although no accurate figures are collected.
John Hamill, the United Grand Lodge's head of communications, said: "We are diverse and open organisation with members from across the community. All we ask our members is that they believe in a Supreme Being."
In that case, surely it would not be a problem for The Independent to witness proceedings? Nothing doing. Mr Hamill said: "The ceremonial aspect of what we do is still regarded as being private."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/a-secret-service-5000-masons-meet-behind-closed-doors-to-set-up-capitals-grand-lodge-581880.html
Monday, September 12, 2011
#hackgate #CPS stops prosecution for 1987 killing of Daniel Morgan
11/03/2011
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has decided that the prosecution of three men for the killing of private detective Daniel Morgan in 1987 cannot continue.
Alison Saunders, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London, said:
"Daniel Morgan was brutally killed 24 years ago. When we authorised charges against five men in April 2008 in relation to his death, we knew this would be a challenging prosecution because of both the passage of time and the amount of material, more than 750,000 pages, which needed to be considered for disclosure to the defence. Material that could assist the defence or undermine the prosecution must be disclosed.
"We were, until yesterday, satisfied that there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction. However, we must continuously review prosecutions to ensure that it is both fair and appropriate that they continue. We no longer believe this prosecution should continue.
"In December 2009, the police revealed a large amount of material to us that had not been considered for disclosure before. There was then considerable legal argument on whether it was possible for the case to proceed. Officers assured the court that there was no further unconsidered material. The judge was considering this matter when, on Friday 4 March 2011, the police revealed further material that had not been previously considered.
"We have decided that a prosecution cannot continue in these circumstances. We cannot be confident that the defence necessarily have all of the material that they are entitled to. This point would be raised by the defence during any trial, so we are no longer satisfied that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.
"This decision has been taken by the CPS with the advice of senior counsel. Daniel Morgan's family was also consulted before this decision was taken. This has been a long and difficult ordeal for the family, and we have offered them our heartfelt sympathies."
Ends
Notes to Editors
1.The CPS authorised charges against five men in April 2008 - a joint charge of murder against William (Jonathan) Rees, Glen Vian, Gary Vian and James Cook and a charge of perverting the course of justice against Sidney Fillery. However, the cases against Cook and Fillery had already been discontinued at an earlier stage in the proceedings.
2.Three prosecution witnesses were subject to agreements under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) 2005.
3.The case against Sidney Fillery relied entirely upon the evidence of a SOCPA witness that was ruled inadmissible by the court in February 2010. We then offered no evidence against him for perverting the course of justice.
4.The case against James Cook relied upon the evidence of three witnesses, including the evidence of the SOCPA witness that the court had ruled inadmissible. We carefully considered whether it was possible to continue with the evidence of the other two witnesses, including another SOCPA witness, but decided it was not possible in November 2010.
5.It emerged in December 2010 that material that could have assisted the defence concerning the prosecution's remaining SOCPA witnesses and should have been disclosed by the police had been lost. Although we could no longer use this witness's evidence against the remaining three defendants, we were satisfied the prosecution could continue.
6.For media enquiries call the CPS Press Office on 020 3357 0906; Out of Hours Pager 07699 781 926
7.The DPP has set out what the public can expect from the CPS in the Core Quality Standards document published in March 2010.
8.The CPS consists of 42 Areas in total, each headed by a Chief Crown Prosecutor (CCP). These are organised into 12 Groups, plus CPS London, each overseen by Group Chair, a senior CCP. In addition there are four specialised national divisions: Central Fraud Group, Counter-Terrorism, Organised Crime and Special Crime. A telephone service, CPS Direct, provides out-of-hours advice and decisions to police officers across England and Wales.
9.The CPS employs around 8,316 people and prosecuted 982,731 cases with a conviction rate of 86.8% in the magistrates' courts and 80.7% in the Crown Court in 2009-20010. Further information can be found on the CPS website
10.The CPS, together with ACPO and media representatives, has developed a Protocol for the release of prosecution material to the media. This sets out the type of prosecution material that will normally be released, or considered for release, together with the factors we will take into account when considering requests. Read the Protocol for the release of prosecution material to the media
.
http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/press_releases/111_11/
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has decided that the prosecution of three men for the killing of private detective Daniel Morgan in 1987 cannot continue.
Alison Saunders, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London, said:
"Daniel Morgan was brutally killed 24 years ago. When we authorised charges against five men in April 2008 in relation to his death, we knew this would be a challenging prosecution because of both the passage of time and the amount of material, more than 750,000 pages, which needed to be considered for disclosure to the defence. Material that could assist the defence or undermine the prosecution must be disclosed.
"We were, until yesterday, satisfied that there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction. However, we must continuously review prosecutions to ensure that it is both fair and appropriate that they continue. We no longer believe this prosecution should continue.
"In December 2009, the police revealed a large amount of material to us that had not been considered for disclosure before. There was then considerable legal argument on whether it was possible for the case to proceed. Officers assured the court that there was no further unconsidered material. The judge was considering this matter when, on Friday 4 March 2011, the police revealed further material that had not been previously considered.
"We have decided that a prosecution cannot continue in these circumstances. We cannot be confident that the defence necessarily have all of the material that they are entitled to. This point would be raised by the defence during any trial, so we are no longer satisfied that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.
"This decision has been taken by the CPS with the advice of senior counsel. Daniel Morgan's family was also consulted before this decision was taken. This has been a long and difficult ordeal for the family, and we have offered them our heartfelt sympathies."
Ends
Notes to Editors
1.The CPS authorised charges against five men in April 2008 - a joint charge of murder against William (Jonathan) Rees, Glen Vian, Gary Vian and James Cook and a charge of perverting the course of justice against Sidney Fillery. However, the cases against Cook and Fillery had already been discontinued at an earlier stage in the proceedings.
2.Three prosecution witnesses were subject to agreements under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) 2005.
3.The case against Sidney Fillery relied entirely upon the evidence of a SOCPA witness that was ruled inadmissible by the court in February 2010. We then offered no evidence against him for perverting the course of justice.
4.The case against James Cook relied upon the evidence of three witnesses, including the evidence of the SOCPA witness that the court had ruled inadmissible. We carefully considered whether it was possible to continue with the evidence of the other two witnesses, including another SOCPA witness, but decided it was not possible in November 2010.
5.It emerged in December 2010 that material that could have assisted the defence concerning the prosecution's remaining SOCPA witnesses and should have been disclosed by the police had been lost. Although we could no longer use this witness's evidence against the remaining three defendants, we were satisfied the prosecution could continue.
6.For media enquiries call the CPS Press Office on 020 3357 0906; Out of Hours Pager 07699 781 926
7.The DPP has set out what the public can expect from the CPS in the Core Quality Standards document published in March 2010.
8.The CPS consists of 42 Areas in total, each headed by a Chief Crown Prosecutor (CCP). These are organised into 12 Groups, plus CPS London, each overseen by Group Chair, a senior CCP. In addition there are four specialised national divisions: Central Fraud Group, Counter-Terrorism, Organised Crime and Special Crime. A telephone service, CPS Direct, provides out-of-hours advice and decisions to police officers across England and Wales.
9.The CPS employs around 8,316 people and prosecuted 982,731 cases with a conviction rate of 86.8% in the magistrates' courts and 80.7% in the Crown Court in 2009-20010. Further information can be found on the CPS website
10.The CPS, together with ACPO and media representatives, has developed a Protocol for the release of prosecution material to the media. This sets out the type of prosecution material that will normally be released, or considered for release, together with the factors we will take into account when considering requests. Read the Protocol for the release of prosecution material to the media
.
http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/press_releases/111_11/
#hackgate : Alastair Morgan brother of murdered Daniel has just announced....
Boris's deputy Kit Malthouse confirms he wants to meet Theresa May in support of judicial inquiry into Daniel Morgan murder #hackgate
Follow Alastair on twitter...http://twitter.com/#!/AlastairMorgan
#Hackgate #MET Ian Blair blasted over Daniel Morgan murder.
The chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority has rejected the Met Commissioner's report on the murder of Daniel Morgan.
Len Duval asked Sir Ian Blair in October 2005 to prepare a report on the failure of four police investigations to resolve allegations of police involvement in the murder.
The report presented to the MPA on 31 January has been rejected as:
"Not adequate, for example in either reaching an understanding of past investigations or in acknowledging how possible misconduct by one or more officers may have affected the investigation of this murder".
http://www.sydenham.org.uk/news_daniel_morgan_mpa.html
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
#Hackgate: Daniel Morgan returns to haunt the Establishment who failed to find his killers.
Here is a wonderful article placed together with many South London links. The Guardian , it is fair to say have done a remarkable job, but this has an edge all of its own.The murder of Daniel Morgan demands a public inquiry, it is a must to get to the core of corruption that is clearly in the MET. The Murdochs are running an organized crime racket on the Streets of London and are only too happy for Tom Watson to stay focused on the hacking of voicemails but there is so much more being hidden here .
Excellent work from TRANSPONTINE Blogspot.
http://transpont.blogspot.com/2011/07/power-corruptions-and-lies.html
Excellent work from TRANSPONTINE Blogspot.
http://transpont.blogspot.com/2011/07/power-corruptions-and-lies.html
Power, corruption and lies
The scandal at News International took a local turn yesterday with the arrest at Lewisham Police Station of Andy Coulson, ex-News of the World editor, ex-Director of Communications for the Government and personal friend of the Prime Minister.
Actually the local angle goes a lot deeper, and perhaps a lot murkier. Coulson lives in Forest Hill near to the Horniman museum. Just over a mile away is the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham Road, SE26. In March 1987 Daniel Morgan, aged 37, was found murdered in the Golden Lion car park with an axe in his head. Morgan (pictured below with his children) was a private investigator who lived in Warminster Road, Norwood. He ran a company called Southern Investigations with an office in Thornton Heath High Street, along with his business partner Jonathan Rees. I suspect we're going to be hearing a lot about the latter over the next few weeks.
There have been several police investigations into the murder, the most recent one of which collapsed in pre-trial hearings in March 2011. The police have however officially acknowledged, at a Metropolitan Police Authority meeting in March, that 'police corruption was a debilitating factor' in the first investigation into Daniel’s murder. That investigation was run from Catford police station. According to the Guardian, one of the Catford officers assigned to the case was Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery. He failed 'to tell his bosses he moonlighted for Southern Investigations', and indeed after leaving the force he later took Morgan's place in the company.
Daniel's family have argued this from the start, and continue to 'invite members of the Metropolitan Police Authority to consider the implications of the evidence available to them from the earliest stages, i.e. that:
• Daniel was murdered because he was about to expose corrupt links between police officers and organised criminals in South East London.
• Daniel’s place in his private investigators company had been taken over by a member of the original murder inquiry, former Detective Sergeant Sidney Fillery'.
You can read more about this at Sydenham Town News. Exactly who killed Morgan has never been established. Various business associates, former and serving police officers have been arrested over the years, but none have been convicted. It is not being suggested that anybody named in this article was party to his murder.
Rees and the News of the World
So what's the connection between this and Coulson? There is of course no direct link between him and the terrible crime. But if the Guardian is to be believed he is isn't too far removed at all from that murky world where informers, criminals, corrupt police officers, private investigators and indeed journalists intersect and exchange cash and information. A world which may have done for Daniel Morgan, or at least prevented his killers being brought to justice.
The Guardian has established that the 'News of the World paid £150,000 a year to man [Jonathan Rees] who obtained information from corrupt police and illegal sources'. They suggest that his unorthodox career with the News of the World was put on hold when he was arrested in 1999 and later sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. According to the Guardian, Rees had been 'hired by a man who was getting divorced and wanted to stop his wife getting custody of their children. Rees came up with a plan. Aided and abetted by yet another corrupt police officer, DC Austin Warnes, he arranged to plant cocaine in the car of the unsuspecting woman, so that she could be charged, convicted and smeared as an unreliable parent'. Warnes was a Bexley Health police constable. Interestingly Plumstead 'celebrity gangster' Dave Courtney was also charged in relation to this plot but was acquitted, as discussed by none other than Frankie Fraser. For Dave Courtney's version of events, see here.
Meanwhile ex-Catford Detective Sergeant Fillery was arrested in 2003 and charged with charged with 15 counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing indecent images. He was later convicted.
Critically in 2005, when Coulson was at the News of the World, Rees - now out of prison - began to be paid by the paper once again to do some of its dirty work. What's more, the Guardian this week disclosed 'that it had passed to a senior Cameron aide information about the News of the World's links to the detective, Jonathan Rees'.
The News of the World and David Cook
The Guardian also reported this week that then News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks was 'summoned to a meeting at Scotland Yard where she was told that one of her most senior journalists, Alex Marunchak, had apparently agreed to use photographers and vans leased to the paper to run surveillance on behalf of Jonathan Rees and Sid Fillery, two private investigators who were suspected of murdering another investigator, Daniel Morgan, when the latter was a partner of Rees's in the firm Southern Investigations. The Yard saw this as a possible attempt to pervert the course of justice. Brooks was also told of evidence that Marunchak had a corrupt relationship with Rees, who had been earning up to £150,000 a year selling confidential data to the News of the World. Police told her that a former employee of Rees had given them a statement alleging that some of these payments were diverted to Marunchak, who had been able to pay off his credit card and pay his child's private school'.
A Guardian investigation suggests that the focus of this surveillance was Detective Chief Superintendent David Cook, who was subject to the 'News of the World physically following him and his young children, "blagging" his personal details from police databases, attempting to access his voicemail and that of his wife, and possibly sending a "Trojan horse" email in an attempt to steal information from his computer. The targeting of Cook began following his appearance on BBC Crimewatch on 26 June 2002, when he appealed for information to solve the murder of Morgan, who had been found dead in south London 15 years earlier. Rees and Fillery were among the suspects. The following day, Cook was warned by the Yard that they had picked up intelligence that Fillery had been in touch with Marunchak and that Marunchak agreed to "sort Cook out"' (Guardian, 6 July 2011). Fillery and Rees were later acquitted of all charges relating to Morgan's murder. Cook was actually heading the latest investigation into this murder, while apparently being targeted by the News of the World.
If it is officially established that Brooks and Coulson knew about Rees working for the NOTW, and that Cameron had been warned about this, then all are in deep trouble. At the very least it would mean that Cameron was only a couple of degrees of separation from a man convicted of being involved in a plot to frame a mother as a drug dealer.
Is the story that Brooks has hinted is still to come out related to this sordid affair? No doubt we will find out soon enough.
[Brooks should know all about Rees, Fillery and the Morgan murder - after all she was editor of The Sun when it carried an article by Mike Sullivan in 2006 which discussed much of the above and stated that 'Daniel, 37, is thought to have been silenced to stop him exposing a crime network involving corrupt police officers. The investigation into his murder was allegedly nobbled by bent cops and crucial evidence destroyed'] Updated 10 July 2011.
Update 19 July 2011 - as predicted in the original post, the Rees/Marunchak/Coulson triangle is gradually becoming central to the investigation, and by implication drawing in Cameron who seemingly hired Coulson despite being warned about this. With senior figures resigning at New International and the Metropolitan Police, Daniel Morgan's murder is becoming Banquo's ghost in this Shakespearean spectacle. Though to be more precise it is not Morgan's murder which is directly linked to this, so much as the News of the World's possible interference in its investigation through targeting the head of the police investigation, David Cook. In developments in the last week: 1. David Cook has announced he intends to sue News of the World; 2. Ed Miliband has raised the issue of Cameron being warned about Coulson's links with Jonathan Rees'; 3. Daniel Morgan's brother has described the News of the World actions as 'disturbing and sinister'; 4. The Independent has reported that police want to question Marunchak and Greg Miskiw, his former colleage at the News of the World and partner in a vodka import business; 5. The Guardian has queried the role of Dick Fedorcio, director of public affairs for the Metropolitan police, in the Marunchak/Cook affair; 6. Marunchak was apparently working for the Metropolitan police as an interpreter alongside his day job as a journalist (further details of all these below).
From the Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2011: 'A former Scotland Yard detective plans to sue the publishers of the News of the World for allegedly hacking his phone while he was investigating a high-profile axe murder. David Cook is considering legal action against News Group Newspapers, a subsidiary of News International, for making him a target as he investigated the death of Daniel Morgan, who was found with an axe embedded in his head in a car park in south London in 1987'
From The Guardian, 13 July 2011: 'In the Commons, the leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband, asked: "The information showed that while he was editing the News of the World Andy Coulson had hired Jonathan Rees, a man jailed for seven years for a criminal conspiracy and who made payments to police on behalf of the News of the World. Can you tell us what happened to that significant information that was given to your chief of staff?"
From the Newsshopper, 14 July 2011: 'The brother of murdered private eye Daniel Morgan says the News of the World’s (NotW) alleged interference in the police investigation is “deeply disturbing”. NotW staff are accused of harassing detective David Cook in 2002, while he was investigating the murder of Mr Morgan, as a favour to one of the suspects, Jonathan Rees. Private eye Mr Rees, aged 57, worked as an investigator for NotW from 1993 to 2000, and was reportedly re-hired by Andy Coulson, the newspaper’s former editor, in 2007. Speaking to News Shopper, Mr Morgan’s brother Alistair said: “These claims the News of the World intervened in the investigation are deeply disturbing and sinister.”... Alistair Morgan, aged 62, from Islington, and his mother Isobel Hulsmann, aged 83, are calling for the government to launch a judicial enquiry into the investigation of Mr Morgan’s death'.
From the Independent, 17 July 2011: 'Detectives investigating phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World are keen to question two former senior journalists at the newspaper. Scotland Yard officers have been told the two, former executive editor Alex Marunchak and deputy news editor Greg Miskiw, were both key figures linked to the use of private investigators to access confidential information... Mr Miskiw is known to be a close friend of Mr Marunchak, a former crime reporter and senior executive at the NOTW. The two reportedly had mutual business arrangements including the importation of vodka from Ukraine. Mr Marunchak, who left the newspaper in 2006, claims to have been appointed as a special adviser to Ukraine's UK embassy in 1999. Mr Marunchak is said to be a friend of a private investigator called Jonathan Rees who was employed by the NOTW to help provide reporters with illegally obtained confidential information'.
From The Guardian 19 July 2011 - 'The search for the truth about the ties that bind Scotland Yard to News International is now likely to focus on the role of one man: Dick Fedorcio, director of public affairs for the Metropolitan police... MPs will want to know whether Fedorcio's close working link with Brooks influenced the Yard's decision to take no action when they discovered that a News of the World executive, Alex Marunchak, had apparently used the paper's resources to mount surveillance on a senior officer, DCS Dave Cook, acting on behalf of two men who were suspects in a murder investigation being led by Cook. Fedorcio was present at a meeting when DCS Cook and his commander, Andre Baker, confronted Brooks with details of the surveillance, which could have been regarded as an attempt to pervert the course of justice'.
From Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2011: 'It also emerged last night that Alex Marunchak, a former executive editor at the paper, was employed by the Metropolitan Police for 20 years as a translator. Between 1980 and 2000 Mr Marunchak, a second generation Ukrainian, combined his day as job as a journalist with working as a part-time interpreter for Scotland Yard when they arrested suspects from Russia and Ukraine'.
Actually the local angle goes a lot deeper, and perhaps a lot murkier. Coulson lives in Forest Hill near to the Horniman museum. Just over a mile away is the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham Road, SE26. In March 1987 Daniel Morgan, aged 37, was found murdered in the Golden Lion car park with an axe in his head. Morgan (pictured below with his children) was a private investigator who lived in Warminster Road, Norwood. He ran a company called Southern Investigations with an office in Thornton Heath High Street, along with his business partner Jonathan Rees. I suspect we're going to be hearing a lot about the latter over the next few weeks.
There have been several police investigations into the murder, the most recent one of which collapsed in pre-trial hearings in March 2011. The police have however officially acknowledged, at a Metropolitan Police Authority meeting in March, that 'police corruption was a debilitating factor' in the first investigation into Daniel’s murder. That investigation was run from Catford police station. According to the Guardian, one of the Catford officers assigned to the case was Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery. He failed 'to tell his bosses he moonlighted for Southern Investigations', and indeed after leaving the force he later took Morgan's place in the company.
Daniel's family have argued this from the start, and continue to 'invite members of the Metropolitan Police Authority to consider the implications of the evidence available to them from the earliest stages, i.e. that:
• Daniel was murdered because he was about to expose corrupt links between police officers and organised criminals in South East London.
• Daniel’s place in his private investigators company had been taken over by a member of the original murder inquiry, former Detective Sergeant Sidney Fillery'.
You can read more about this at Sydenham Town News. Exactly who killed Morgan has never been established. Various business associates, former and serving police officers have been arrested over the years, but none have been convicted. It is not being suggested that anybody named in this article was party to his murder.
Rees and the News of the World
So what's the connection between this and Coulson? There is of course no direct link between him and the terrible crime. But if the Guardian is to be believed he is isn't too far removed at all from that murky world where informers, criminals, corrupt police officers, private investigators and indeed journalists intersect and exchange cash and information. A world which may have done for Daniel Morgan, or at least prevented his killers being brought to justice.
The Guardian has established that the 'News of the World paid £150,000 a year to man [Jonathan Rees] who obtained information from corrupt police and illegal sources'. They suggest that his unorthodox career with the News of the World was put on hold when he was arrested in 1999 and later sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. According to the Guardian, Rees had been 'hired by a man who was getting divorced and wanted to stop his wife getting custody of their children. Rees came up with a plan. Aided and abetted by yet another corrupt police officer, DC Austin Warnes, he arranged to plant cocaine in the car of the unsuspecting woman, so that she could be charged, convicted and smeared as an unreliable parent'. Warnes was a Bexley Health police constable. Interestingly Plumstead 'celebrity gangster' Dave Courtney was also charged in relation to this plot but was acquitted, as discussed by none other than Frankie Fraser. For Dave Courtney's version of events, see here.
Meanwhile ex-Catford Detective Sergeant Fillery was arrested in 2003 and charged with charged with 15 counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing indecent images. He was later convicted.
Critically in 2005, when Coulson was at the News of the World, Rees - now out of prison - began to be paid by the paper once again to do some of its dirty work. What's more, the Guardian this week disclosed 'that it had passed to a senior Cameron aide information about the News of the World's links to the detective, Jonathan Rees'.
The News of the World and David Cook
The Guardian also reported this week that then News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks was 'summoned to a meeting at Scotland Yard where she was told that one of her most senior journalists, Alex Marunchak, had apparently agreed to use photographers and vans leased to the paper to run surveillance on behalf of Jonathan Rees and Sid Fillery, two private investigators who were suspected of murdering another investigator, Daniel Morgan, when the latter was a partner of Rees's in the firm Southern Investigations. The Yard saw this as a possible attempt to pervert the course of justice. Brooks was also told of evidence that Marunchak had a corrupt relationship with Rees, who had been earning up to £150,000 a year selling confidential data to the News of the World. Police told her that a former employee of Rees had given them a statement alleging that some of these payments were diverted to Marunchak, who had been able to pay off his credit card and pay his child's private school'.
A Guardian investigation suggests that the focus of this surveillance was Detective Chief Superintendent David Cook, who was subject to the 'News of the World physically following him and his young children, "blagging" his personal details from police databases, attempting to access his voicemail and that of his wife, and possibly sending a "Trojan horse" email in an attempt to steal information from his computer. The targeting of Cook began following his appearance on BBC Crimewatch on 26 June 2002, when he appealed for information to solve the murder of Morgan, who had been found dead in south London 15 years earlier. Rees and Fillery were among the suspects. The following day, Cook was warned by the Yard that they had picked up intelligence that Fillery had been in touch with Marunchak and that Marunchak agreed to "sort Cook out"' (Guardian, 6 July 2011). Fillery and Rees were later acquitted of all charges relating to Morgan's murder. Cook was actually heading the latest investigation into this murder, while apparently being targeted by the News of the World.
If it is officially established that Brooks and Coulson knew about Rees working for the NOTW, and that Cameron had been warned about this, then all are in deep trouble. At the very least it would mean that Cameron was only a couple of degrees of separation from a man convicted of being involved in a plot to frame a mother as a drug dealer.
Is the story that Brooks has hinted is still to come out related to this sordid affair? No doubt we will find out soon enough.
[Brooks should know all about Rees, Fillery and the Morgan murder - after all she was editor of The Sun when it carried an article by Mike Sullivan in 2006 which discussed much of the above and stated that 'Daniel, 37, is thought to have been silenced to stop him exposing a crime network involving corrupt police officers. The investigation into his murder was allegedly nobbled by bent cops and crucial evidence destroyed'] Updated 10 July 2011.
Update 19 July 2011 - as predicted in the original post, the Rees/Marunchak/Coulson triangle is gradually becoming central to the investigation, and by implication drawing in Cameron who seemingly hired Coulson despite being warned about this. With senior figures resigning at New International and the Metropolitan Police, Daniel Morgan's murder is becoming Banquo's ghost in this Shakespearean spectacle. Though to be more precise it is not Morgan's murder which is directly linked to this, so much as the News of the World's possible interference in its investigation through targeting the head of the police investigation, David Cook. In developments in the last week: 1. David Cook has announced he intends to sue News of the World; 2. Ed Miliband has raised the issue of Cameron being warned about Coulson's links with Jonathan Rees'; 3. Daniel Morgan's brother has described the News of the World actions as 'disturbing and sinister'; 4. The Independent has reported that police want to question Marunchak and Greg Miskiw, his former colleage at the News of the World and partner in a vodka import business; 5. The Guardian has queried the role of Dick Fedorcio, director of public affairs for the Metropolitan police, in the Marunchak/Cook affair; 6. Marunchak was apparently working for the Metropolitan police as an interpreter alongside his day job as a journalist (further details of all these below).
From the Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2011: 'A former Scotland Yard detective plans to sue the publishers of the News of the World for allegedly hacking his phone while he was investigating a high-profile axe murder. David Cook is considering legal action against News Group Newspapers, a subsidiary of News International, for making him a target as he investigated the death of Daniel Morgan, who was found with an axe embedded in his head in a car park in south London in 1987'
From The Guardian, 13 July 2011: 'In the Commons, the leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband, asked: "The information showed that while he was editing the News of the World Andy Coulson had hired Jonathan Rees, a man jailed for seven years for a criminal conspiracy and who made payments to police on behalf of the News of the World. Can you tell us what happened to that significant information that was given to your chief of staff?"
From the Newsshopper, 14 July 2011: 'The brother of murdered private eye Daniel Morgan says the News of the World’s (NotW) alleged interference in the police investigation is “deeply disturbing”. NotW staff are accused of harassing detective David Cook in 2002, while he was investigating the murder of Mr Morgan, as a favour to one of the suspects, Jonathan Rees. Private eye Mr Rees, aged 57, worked as an investigator for NotW from 1993 to 2000, and was reportedly re-hired by Andy Coulson, the newspaper’s former editor, in 2007. Speaking to News Shopper, Mr Morgan’s brother Alistair said: “These claims the News of the World intervened in the investigation are deeply disturbing and sinister.”... Alistair Morgan, aged 62, from Islington, and his mother Isobel Hulsmann, aged 83, are calling for the government to launch a judicial enquiry into the investigation of Mr Morgan’s death'.
From the Independent, 17 July 2011: 'Detectives investigating phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World are keen to question two former senior journalists at the newspaper. Scotland Yard officers have been told the two, former executive editor Alex Marunchak and deputy news editor Greg Miskiw, were both key figures linked to the use of private investigators to access confidential information... Mr Miskiw is known to be a close friend of Mr Marunchak, a former crime reporter and senior executive at the NOTW. The two reportedly had mutual business arrangements including the importation of vodka from Ukraine. Mr Marunchak, who left the newspaper in 2006, claims to have been appointed as a special adviser to Ukraine's UK embassy in 1999. Mr Marunchak is said to be a friend of a private investigator called Jonathan Rees who was employed by the NOTW to help provide reporters with illegally obtained confidential information'.
From The Guardian 19 July 2011 - 'The search for the truth about the ties that bind Scotland Yard to News International is now likely to focus on the role of one man: Dick Fedorcio, director of public affairs for the Metropolitan police... MPs will want to know whether Fedorcio's close working link with Brooks influenced the Yard's decision to take no action when they discovered that a News of the World executive, Alex Marunchak, had apparently used the paper's resources to mount surveillance on a senior officer, DCS Dave Cook, acting on behalf of two men who were suspects in a murder investigation being led by Cook. Fedorcio was present at a meeting when DCS Cook and his commander, Andre Baker, confronted Brooks with details of the surveillance, which could have been regarded as an attempt to pervert the course of justice'.
From Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2011: 'It also emerged last night that Alex Marunchak, a former executive editor at the paper, was employed by the Metropolitan Police for 20 years as a translator. Between 1980 and 2000 Mr Marunchak, a second generation Ukrainian, combined his day as job as a journalist with working as a part-time interpreter for Scotland Yard when they arrested suspects from Russia and Ukraine'.
#Hackgate Daniel Morgan a TROPHY killing ? Dan's £800 Rolex watch was missing but £1,100 was in his pocket from which DNA traces have been found.
Andy Coulson did. More in the Guardian from 2008:
"Rees had close contacts with the local police and his colleagues believed he wanted to be a policeman himself. Morgan was unhappy about the closeness of some of those relations and at the direction the work was taking. At the time of his death, it is believed Morgan was about to expose a south London drug network, possibly involving corrupt police officers.
Tension between Morgan and Rees heightened over Southern Investigations' contract with the local Belmont car auction in Charlton whose takings the firm had responsibility for depositing. In early 1987, Rees claimed to have been robbed of £18,000 of the takings but Morgan had doubts about whether such a robbery had taken place. On March 10, Morgan agreed to meet Rees at the Golden Lion in Sydenham, not their normal local but one which happened to be inside the Catford police area where friends of Rees worked.
After the meeting, Morgan went to the pub's car park where he was struck on the back of the head with an axe and killed. The axe, which had been bound with sticking plaster to avoid leaving fingerprints, was left embedded in his head. His £800 Rolex watch was missing but £1,100 was in his pocket from which DNA traces have been found.
At the inquest, Rees suggested Morgan had made passes at the wives of clients and that there might be a motive for murder there. There were also tales that he had been watching Colombian cocaine dealers on behalf of a public figure whose daughter had become addicted."
"Rees had close contacts with the local police and his colleagues believed he wanted to be a policeman himself. Morgan was unhappy about the closeness of some of those relations and at the direction the work was taking. At the time of his death, it is believed Morgan was about to expose a south London drug network, possibly involving corrupt police officers.
Tension between Morgan and Rees heightened over Southern Investigations' contract with the local Belmont car auction in Charlton whose takings the firm had responsibility for depositing. In early 1987, Rees claimed to have been robbed of £18,000 of the takings but Morgan had doubts about whether such a robbery had taken place. On March 10, Morgan agreed to meet Rees at the Golden Lion in Sydenham, not their normal local but one which happened to be inside the Catford police area where friends of Rees worked.
After the meeting, Morgan went to the pub's car park where he was struck on the back of the head with an axe and killed. The axe, which had been bound with sticking plaster to avoid leaving fingerprints, was left embedded in his head. His £800 Rolex watch was missing but £1,100 was in his pocket from which DNA traces have been found.
At the inquest, Rees suggested Morgan had made passes at the wives of clients and that there might be a motive for murder there. There were also tales that he had been watching Colombian cocaine dealers on behalf of a public figure whose daughter had become addicted."
#Hackgate : Daniel Morgan Murder :In the following months there were rumours and allegations of high level police corruption and Masonic links surrounding the investigation but no charges resulted.
The murder of Daniel Morgan
Report: 10
Date: 27 October 2005
By: Chief Executive and Clerk
Summary
This report invites the Authority to consider whether it wishes to take steps in support of the Morgan family to investigate further into the events surrounding and subsequent to the murder of Daniel Morgan in 1987.
A. Recommendation
That the Authority decides whether it agrees to the proposals set out in paragraph 16 of this report.
B. Supporting information
The murder of Daniel Morgan
1. The following is a brief summary of the murder of Daniel Morgan and subsequent events. It does not reflect the complexities of this case or a number of the personalities involved. Nor can it do justice to the deep concerns that his family have about flaws in the conduct of the investigations into the murder and allegations that they have made publicly that police officers were involved in the murder itself.
2. In 1987 private investigator Daniel Morgan was murdered with an axe in a pub car park in Sydenham, south east London. At the time he was the business partner of Jonathan Rees in a company of private investigators called Southern Investigations. Jonathan Rees was regarded as the principal suspect. The primary motive was considered to be the circumstances surrounding a robbery at a Car Auction premises a year earlier.
3. Jonathan Rees undertook to provide security for the auctions, employing his brothers-in-law and three serving police officers, one of whom was DS Sidney Fillery. On 18 March 1986 the auction’s takings were stolen in circumstances that led Belmont Auctions to conclude that Mr Rees had engineered the theft. As a result they sued Mr Rees and Mr Morgan through the civil courts. This caused a major breakdown in the relationship between the two partners and the MPS investigation team believed that this led to the murder.
4. Detective Superintendent Douglas Campbell led the MPS investigation team. Because the murder had occurred in the Catford police areas where he worked, DS Fillery was seconded to the murder squad. He failed to inform Mr Campbell of his association with Mr Rees or of his involvement with the Belmont incident. In addition he undertook a search of the offices of Southern Investigations, allegedly removing a file relating to the Belmont Auctions work that was never seen by the investigation team. As soon as his role in the incident was discovered he was removed from the squad but Mr Campbell’s view was that he had already fundamentally undermined the investigation.
5. In April 1987 Mr Rees, DS Fillery and the other two officers were arrested upon suspicion of being involved in the murder. All were later released uncharged.
6. In the following months there were rumours and allegations of high level police corruption and Masonic links surrounding the investigation but no charges resulted.
7. In April 1988 an inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing. Daniel Morgan’s family complained to the Police Complaints Authority about the conduct of the investigation and in June 1988 the Head of Hampshire CID undertook a review of the MPS investigation. His conclusion was that there was no evidence to suggest that police had been involved and that in his opinion Mr Rees had arranged the murder. Mr Rees was charged with this offence but the Director of Public Prosecutions subsequently discontinued the prosecution for lack of evidence.
8. In March 1988 Mr Fillery was medically discharged from the MPS and took Daniel Morgan’s place as Mr Rees’ partner at Southern Investigations.
9. In 1999 the MPS Anti-Corruption Command carried out a further investigation of Mr Rees’ and Mr Fillery’s alleged corrupt activities, together with the murder of Daniel Morgan. This found little evidence in relation to the murder, evidence was found of a conspiracy to plant cocaine on a young mother on behalf of her husband in order to win a custody battle for their chil but evidence of significant corruption. In additiond. As a result, in December 2000 Rees and the husband were sentenced to six years imprisonment, later increased to seven years on appeal.
10. The MPS Murder Review Group conducted a review of all available evidence and intelligence in 2001, followed by a focused re-investigation of the murder. This resulted in a report to the Crown Prosecution Service recommending that charges should be laid against various people. However, counsel’s advice recommended that no charges should be pursued.
11. The current situation is that the murder is not being actively investigated but the case has not been closed. There therefore remains the chance that evidence may be forthcoming in the future that could lead to a prosecution and care should be taken not to prejudice this.
12. From the outset, Daniel Morgan’s brother Alastair and other members of the family have consistently raised concerns over the police handling of this case (including the way that Hampshire Constabulary reviewed the first investigation) as well as alleging police officer involvement in the murder itself and subsequent collusion and cover up to a high level within the MPS. This case has been the subject of a great deal of media coverage over the years. The family’s views are also represented on the website
http://www.justice4daniel.org/ [1].
13. The family have received support over the years from MPs – including 57 MPs signing an Early Day Motion calling for a public judicial inquiry - and have met with the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw and more recently Hazel Blears. They have not, however, been successful so far in their main aim of getting agreement to the holding of a public inquiry into all the events surrounding this case.
The family’s approach to the MPA
14. The family sought a meeting with Jennette Arnold, as their local MPA representative, and a meeting was subsequently held on 19 May 2005 between Jennette and Len Duvall, the Chair of the Authority, on behalf of the MPA, Alastair Morgan and other members of the family and supporting MPS. At this meeting Alastair Morgan and other family members briefed Len Duvall and Jennette Arnold on the events surrounding the case and their detailed concerns and reasons why they see a public inquiry as essential to restore confidence in the police and the criminal justice system.
15. The Chair undertook to reflect on the issues raised by the family and in what way the MPA might be able or prepared to act in the case towards securing a comprehensive account of what happened in the various investigations and a critique of the investigations. This would also give them support in their campaign. A further meeting with the family was held on 27 June at which the Chair outlined ways in which the MPA might be able and prepared to take action. Correspondence followed between the Chair, Alastair Morgan and the family’s solicitor. The Chair also discussed the position with the MPS at a senior level. The Deputy Chief Executive & Solicitor has also met with Alastair Morgan and the family’s solicitor to explore the options in more detail.
Proposals
16. It is the Chair’s view that although this murder took place some 18 years ago, there are a number of unanswered questions which must continue to cast doubt on the integrity of the police service. He considers that an independent review, with a focused brief, would be a constructive and necessary way forward. On the basis of the Chair’s discussions with the family the following steps are therefore proposed:
•Under Section 22 (3) of the Police Act 1996, for the MPA to require the Commissioner to submit a Report to the Authority on the murder of Daniel Morgan and the subsequent investigations of that crime. The proposed commissioning brief for this report is set out in the appendix to this report. The Commissioner would be asked to prepare the report to be considered at the January 2006 meeting of the Authority in public session. The Report would be shared with the Morgan family and their comments obtained so that the Authority could consider those as well.
•Following consideration of the Commissioner’s report, and in the light of comments from the family, the MPA will engage a barrister to independently review all the case papers in relation to the murder and all subsequent investigations. The barrister would be asked to produce a comprehensive appraisal of the several investigations and the various decisions by police and prosecuting authorities and to comment generally on the conduct of the investigations, and in particular to advise whether the case papers
a.Point to conclusions other than those reached by the most recent MPS review of the investigation
b.Indicate police corruption/collusion or involvement in either the murder itself or the subsequent failure of investigations
c.Provide sufficient grounds to justify any prosecution
d.Raise issues that could best be pursued through a public inquiry (for instance because of the power to summon witnesses) and what risks might flow from such an inquiry in relation to prospective prosecutions
The terms of reference of this review may be refined in the light of the Report by the Commissioner, taking account of views of the family of the deceased and the MPA.
The family of the deceased and the MPS will have opportunity to make written and oral submissions to the QC, and the MPS will be expected to respond to requests from the QC for further information.
This review would be conducted wholly in private. The QC’s report would be made available to the family of the deceased.
Comments of the Deputy Chief Executive and Solicitor to the Authority
17. The Authority has no functions in relation to the investigation of the crime as such, or in relation to decisions whether or not to prosecute. Those are matters for the Commissioner and the prosecuting authority respectively.
However, in pursuing its responsibilities to secure effective and efficient policing, and to hold the Commissioner to account for the performance of the MPS, the Authority has a legitimate interest in receiving an explanation from the Commissioner of MPS’ actions in the case. The Authority has the power to require a report from the Commissioner about past matters as well as present ones, and the power to obtain independent legal advice to assist it to come to a view on the conduct of the investigations as a matter of performance and learning.
The Authority does not have control of any of the papers relating to the investigations. The independent review by a barrister, as envisaged here, can only take place effectively with the full co-operation of the MPS in making documentation and evidential material available to the barrister in confidence. From discussions with the Deputy Commissioner and other Senior Officers it is understood that the MPS will give its co-operation.
Decisions
18. The Authority is therefore asked to decide whether it wishes to proceed in the way set out in paragraph
16. If agreed, the Authority would expect to receive the Commissioner’s report at its January 2006 meeting, unless there were compelling reasons why this would not be possible. At this stage the Authority is being asked for an in principle decision in relation to an independent case review, pending an assessment of its likely scale and scope which will be informed by the contents of the Commissioner’s report. Every effort will be made to contain the costs of the review within reasonable limits by focusing on the key questions whilst ensuring that the thoroughness of the review is not prejudiced.
C. Race and equality impact
There are no implications at this stage.
D. Financial implications
There are no financial implications at this stage, in that the Authority is being asked to make an in principle decision on an independent review. However, there would be significant financial implications if such a review was agreed and these would be addressed in a subsequent report.
E. Background papers
■Letter from the Chair of the Authority to Alastair Morgan, July 2005
F. Contact details
Report author: Simon Vile
For more information contact:
MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18
Letter from MPA Chief Executive & Clerk to Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis regarding the murder of Daniel Morgan
(this letter was sent after the full Authority meeting held on 27 October 2005 at which this report was presented)
3 November 2005
Sir Ian Blair, QPM, MA
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
New Scotland Yard
Dear Ian,
The murder of Daniel Morgan
As you know, the full Authority meeting last week considered whether it wished to take steps in support of the Morgan family in relation to the events surrounding and subsequent to the murder of Daniel Morgan in 1987.
Members decided, under Section 22 (3) of the Police Act 1996, to ask you to submit a report to the Authority, the commissioning brief for which is attached. This commissioning brief attempts to capture the concerns expressed by the Morgan family and I need to make it clear, therefore, that its wording does not imply that the Authority has formed any views about the several investigations of this murder in advance of receiving your report.
The Authority agreed to receive your report at its meeting on 26 January 2006. The Chair has undertaken to give the Morgan family sight of the report in sufficient time to allow them to submit written comments to Authority members. This suggests, therefore that your report should be completed, or substantially completed, by the end of December. I would be grateful if you could alert me at the earliest opportunity if this is not going to be possible, with your estimate of the timescale required for completion of a suitably comprehensive report.
The Authority intends to take your report in open session. I am, however, concerned to ensure that we do not prejudice any possibility of securing future convictions for this murder. Therefore, I would similarly welcome an early discussion if there are specific aspects that may need to be treated as exempt information. I would, however, expect the whole report to be made available to the Morgan family.
Following consideration of your report, and in the light of comments from the family, the MPA will consider whether to engage a barrister to conduct a thorough but focussed review of case papers in relation to the murder and the subsequent investigations. In the meantime, David Riddle will consult with AC Brown and David Hamilton as part of the MPA’s consideration of the practical, legal and cost implications, and of a shortlist of Counsel who might be approached.
Yours sincerely
Catherine Crawford
Chief Executive & Clerk to the Authority
Appendix 1
Commissioning brief for a report to the Authority - issued by MPA pursuant to Section 22(3) of the Police Act 1996
To report on the murder of Daniel Morgan and the subsequent investigations of that crime, and specifically on:
1. the murder and the circumstances surrounding the murder
2. the first investigation of the murder carried out by the MPS – giving a comprehensive account of the investigation and its weakness including the possibility of the investigation being compromised and specifically covering
•the role of ex PS Sidney Fillery in that investigation: and
•the extent to which other police officers were amongst those who sought to protect him
3. The Coroner’s inquest and verdict, including in particular the extent to which the inquiry was necessarily reliant upon the products of the first MPS investigation and therefore crippled by any identified weaknesses in that investigation (not least in relation to forensic evidence relating to the murder weapon and the integrity of the crime scene)
4. The further investigation by Hampshire Police, addressing in particular
•The extent to which the terms of reference of the investigation were changed whereby its focus was shifted away from its original purpose of investigating police involvement in the deceased’s murder; and
•The extent to which the report of the investigation to the PCA on the question of police involvement in the murder was misleading in its findings, not least in relation to forensic evidence relating to the murder weapon and the integrity of the crime scene.
5. Subsequent reviews and re-investigation by the MPS, addressing in particular the circumstances in which the third investigation (The Two Bridges Inquiry) was conducted almost entirely without the knowledge of the deceased’s family until it came to be aborted.
6. The extent of police corruption as it related to the murder of Daniel Morgan and the subsequent investigation
7. The current status of the inquiry
8. The lessons learned by the MPS from this case
The Commissioner’s report will be made available to the family of the deceased.
http://www.mpa.gov.uk/committees/mpa/2005/051027/10/
Report: 10
Date: 27 October 2005
By: Chief Executive and Clerk
Summary
This report invites the Authority to consider whether it wishes to take steps in support of the Morgan family to investigate further into the events surrounding and subsequent to the murder of Daniel Morgan in 1987.
A. Recommendation
That the Authority decides whether it agrees to the proposals set out in paragraph 16 of this report.
B. Supporting information
The murder of Daniel Morgan
1. The following is a brief summary of the murder of Daniel Morgan and subsequent events. It does not reflect the complexities of this case or a number of the personalities involved. Nor can it do justice to the deep concerns that his family have about flaws in the conduct of the investigations into the murder and allegations that they have made publicly that police officers were involved in the murder itself.
2. In 1987 private investigator Daniel Morgan was murdered with an axe in a pub car park in Sydenham, south east London. At the time he was the business partner of Jonathan Rees in a company of private investigators called Southern Investigations. Jonathan Rees was regarded as the principal suspect. The primary motive was considered to be the circumstances surrounding a robbery at a Car Auction premises a year earlier.
3. Jonathan Rees undertook to provide security for the auctions, employing his brothers-in-law and three serving police officers, one of whom was DS Sidney Fillery. On 18 March 1986 the auction’s takings were stolen in circumstances that led Belmont Auctions to conclude that Mr Rees had engineered the theft. As a result they sued Mr Rees and Mr Morgan through the civil courts. This caused a major breakdown in the relationship between the two partners and the MPS investigation team believed that this led to the murder.
4. Detective Superintendent Douglas Campbell led the MPS investigation team. Because the murder had occurred in the Catford police areas where he worked, DS Fillery was seconded to the murder squad. He failed to inform Mr Campbell of his association with Mr Rees or of his involvement with the Belmont incident. In addition he undertook a search of the offices of Southern Investigations, allegedly removing a file relating to the Belmont Auctions work that was never seen by the investigation team. As soon as his role in the incident was discovered he was removed from the squad but Mr Campbell’s view was that he had already fundamentally undermined the investigation.
5. In April 1987 Mr Rees, DS Fillery and the other two officers were arrested upon suspicion of being involved in the murder. All were later released uncharged.
6. In the following months there were rumours and allegations of high level police corruption and Masonic links surrounding the investigation but no charges resulted.
7. In April 1988 an inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing. Daniel Morgan’s family complained to the Police Complaints Authority about the conduct of the investigation and in June 1988 the Head of Hampshire CID undertook a review of the MPS investigation. His conclusion was that there was no evidence to suggest that police had been involved and that in his opinion Mr Rees had arranged the murder. Mr Rees was charged with this offence but the Director of Public Prosecutions subsequently discontinued the prosecution for lack of evidence.
8. In March 1988 Mr Fillery was medically discharged from the MPS and took Daniel Morgan’s place as Mr Rees’ partner at Southern Investigations.
9. In 1999 the MPS Anti-Corruption Command carried out a further investigation of Mr Rees’ and Mr Fillery’s alleged corrupt activities, together with the murder of Daniel Morgan. This found little evidence in relation to the murder, evidence was found of a conspiracy to plant cocaine on a young mother on behalf of her husband in order to win a custody battle for their chil but evidence of significant corruption. In additiond. As a result, in December 2000 Rees and the husband were sentenced to six years imprisonment, later increased to seven years on appeal.
10. The MPS Murder Review Group conducted a review of all available evidence and intelligence in 2001, followed by a focused re-investigation of the murder. This resulted in a report to the Crown Prosecution Service recommending that charges should be laid against various people. However, counsel’s advice recommended that no charges should be pursued.
11. The current situation is that the murder is not being actively investigated but the case has not been closed. There therefore remains the chance that evidence may be forthcoming in the future that could lead to a prosecution and care should be taken not to prejudice this.
12. From the outset, Daniel Morgan’s brother Alastair and other members of the family have consistently raised concerns over the police handling of this case (including the way that Hampshire Constabulary reviewed the first investigation) as well as alleging police officer involvement in the murder itself and subsequent collusion and cover up to a high level within the MPS. This case has been the subject of a great deal of media coverage over the years. The family’s views are also represented on the website
http://www.justice4daniel.org/ [1].
13. The family have received support over the years from MPs – including 57 MPs signing an Early Day Motion calling for a public judicial inquiry - and have met with the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw and more recently Hazel Blears. They have not, however, been successful so far in their main aim of getting agreement to the holding of a public inquiry into all the events surrounding this case.
The family’s approach to the MPA
14. The family sought a meeting with Jennette Arnold, as their local MPA representative, and a meeting was subsequently held on 19 May 2005 between Jennette and Len Duvall, the Chair of the Authority, on behalf of the MPA, Alastair Morgan and other members of the family and supporting MPS. At this meeting Alastair Morgan and other family members briefed Len Duvall and Jennette Arnold on the events surrounding the case and their detailed concerns and reasons why they see a public inquiry as essential to restore confidence in the police and the criminal justice system.
15. The Chair undertook to reflect on the issues raised by the family and in what way the MPA might be able or prepared to act in the case towards securing a comprehensive account of what happened in the various investigations and a critique of the investigations. This would also give them support in their campaign. A further meeting with the family was held on 27 June at which the Chair outlined ways in which the MPA might be able and prepared to take action. Correspondence followed between the Chair, Alastair Morgan and the family’s solicitor. The Chair also discussed the position with the MPS at a senior level. The Deputy Chief Executive & Solicitor has also met with Alastair Morgan and the family’s solicitor to explore the options in more detail.
Proposals
16. It is the Chair’s view that although this murder took place some 18 years ago, there are a number of unanswered questions which must continue to cast doubt on the integrity of the police service. He considers that an independent review, with a focused brief, would be a constructive and necessary way forward. On the basis of the Chair’s discussions with the family the following steps are therefore proposed:
•Under Section 22 (3) of the Police Act 1996, for the MPA to require the Commissioner to submit a Report to the Authority on the murder of Daniel Morgan and the subsequent investigations of that crime. The proposed commissioning brief for this report is set out in the appendix to this report. The Commissioner would be asked to prepare the report to be considered at the January 2006 meeting of the Authority in public session. The Report would be shared with the Morgan family and their comments obtained so that the Authority could consider those as well.
•Following consideration of the Commissioner’s report, and in the light of comments from the family, the MPA will engage a barrister to independently review all the case papers in relation to the murder and all subsequent investigations. The barrister would be asked to produce a comprehensive appraisal of the several investigations and the various decisions by police and prosecuting authorities and to comment generally on the conduct of the investigations, and in particular to advise whether the case papers
a.Point to conclusions other than those reached by the most recent MPS review of the investigation
b.Indicate police corruption/collusion or involvement in either the murder itself or the subsequent failure of investigations
c.Provide sufficient grounds to justify any prosecution
d.Raise issues that could best be pursued through a public inquiry (for instance because of the power to summon witnesses) and what risks might flow from such an inquiry in relation to prospective prosecutions
The terms of reference of this review may be refined in the light of the Report by the Commissioner, taking account of views of the family of the deceased and the MPA.
The family of the deceased and the MPS will have opportunity to make written and oral submissions to the QC, and the MPS will be expected to respond to requests from the QC for further information.
This review would be conducted wholly in private. The QC’s report would be made available to the family of the deceased.
Comments of the Deputy Chief Executive and Solicitor to the Authority
17. The Authority has no functions in relation to the investigation of the crime as such, or in relation to decisions whether or not to prosecute. Those are matters for the Commissioner and the prosecuting authority respectively.
However, in pursuing its responsibilities to secure effective and efficient policing, and to hold the Commissioner to account for the performance of the MPS, the Authority has a legitimate interest in receiving an explanation from the Commissioner of MPS’ actions in the case. The Authority has the power to require a report from the Commissioner about past matters as well as present ones, and the power to obtain independent legal advice to assist it to come to a view on the conduct of the investigations as a matter of performance and learning.
The Authority does not have control of any of the papers relating to the investigations. The independent review by a barrister, as envisaged here, can only take place effectively with the full co-operation of the MPS in making documentation and evidential material available to the barrister in confidence. From discussions with the Deputy Commissioner and other Senior Officers it is understood that the MPS will give its co-operation.
Decisions
18. The Authority is therefore asked to decide whether it wishes to proceed in the way set out in paragraph
16. If agreed, the Authority would expect to receive the Commissioner’s report at its January 2006 meeting, unless there were compelling reasons why this would not be possible. At this stage the Authority is being asked for an in principle decision in relation to an independent case review, pending an assessment of its likely scale and scope which will be informed by the contents of the Commissioner’s report. Every effort will be made to contain the costs of the review within reasonable limits by focusing on the key questions whilst ensuring that the thoroughness of the review is not prejudiced.
C. Race and equality impact
There are no implications at this stage.
D. Financial implications
There are no financial implications at this stage, in that the Authority is being asked to make an in principle decision on an independent review. However, there would be significant financial implications if such a review was agreed and these would be addressed in a subsequent report.
E. Background papers
■Letter from the Chair of the Authority to Alastair Morgan, July 2005
F. Contact details
Report author: Simon Vile
For more information contact:
MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18
Letter from MPA Chief Executive & Clerk to Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis regarding the murder of Daniel Morgan
(this letter was sent after the full Authority meeting held on 27 October 2005 at which this report was presented)
3 November 2005
Sir Ian Blair, QPM, MA
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
New Scotland Yard
Dear Ian,
The murder of Daniel Morgan
As you know, the full Authority meeting last week considered whether it wished to take steps in support of the Morgan family in relation to the events surrounding and subsequent to the murder of Daniel Morgan in 1987.
Members decided, under Section 22 (3) of the Police Act 1996, to ask you to submit a report to the Authority, the commissioning brief for which is attached. This commissioning brief attempts to capture the concerns expressed by the Morgan family and I need to make it clear, therefore, that its wording does not imply that the Authority has formed any views about the several investigations of this murder in advance of receiving your report.
The Authority agreed to receive your report at its meeting on 26 January 2006. The Chair has undertaken to give the Morgan family sight of the report in sufficient time to allow them to submit written comments to Authority members. This suggests, therefore that your report should be completed, or substantially completed, by the end of December. I would be grateful if you could alert me at the earliest opportunity if this is not going to be possible, with your estimate of the timescale required for completion of a suitably comprehensive report.
The Authority intends to take your report in open session. I am, however, concerned to ensure that we do not prejudice any possibility of securing future convictions for this murder. Therefore, I would similarly welcome an early discussion if there are specific aspects that may need to be treated as exempt information. I would, however, expect the whole report to be made available to the Morgan family.
Following consideration of your report, and in the light of comments from the family, the MPA will consider whether to engage a barrister to conduct a thorough but focussed review of case papers in relation to the murder and the subsequent investigations. In the meantime, David Riddle will consult with AC Brown and David Hamilton as part of the MPA’s consideration of the practical, legal and cost implications, and of a shortlist of Counsel who might be approached.
Yours sincerely
Catherine Crawford
Chief Executive & Clerk to the Authority
Appendix 1
Commissioning brief for a report to the Authority - issued by MPA pursuant to Section 22(3) of the Police Act 1996
To report on the murder of Daniel Morgan and the subsequent investigations of that crime, and specifically on:
1. the murder and the circumstances surrounding the murder
2. the first investigation of the murder carried out by the MPS – giving a comprehensive account of the investigation and its weakness including the possibility of the investigation being compromised and specifically covering
•the role of ex PS Sidney Fillery in that investigation: and
•the extent to which other police officers were amongst those who sought to protect him
3. The Coroner’s inquest and verdict, including in particular the extent to which the inquiry was necessarily reliant upon the products of the first MPS investigation and therefore crippled by any identified weaknesses in that investigation (not least in relation to forensic evidence relating to the murder weapon and the integrity of the crime scene)
4. The further investigation by Hampshire Police, addressing in particular
•The extent to which the terms of reference of the investigation were changed whereby its focus was shifted away from its original purpose of investigating police involvement in the deceased’s murder; and
•The extent to which the report of the investigation to the PCA on the question of police involvement in the murder was misleading in its findings, not least in relation to forensic evidence relating to the murder weapon and the integrity of the crime scene.
5. Subsequent reviews and re-investigation by the MPS, addressing in particular the circumstances in which the third investigation (The Two Bridges Inquiry) was conducted almost entirely without the knowledge of the deceased’s family until it came to be aborted.
6. The extent of police corruption as it related to the murder of Daniel Morgan and the subsequent investigation
7. The current status of the inquiry
8. The lessons learned by the MPS from this case
The Commissioner’s report will be made available to the family of the deceased.
http://www.mpa.gov.uk/committees/mpa/2005/051027/10/
#Hackgate : #MP calls for review of 24-year-old murder case
Daniel Morgan was murdered in 1987 but no one has ever been found guilty
An MP who has spoken out against phone hacking is calling for the murder of a private investigator to be examined as part of the inquiry into the scandal.
Tom Watson believes the News of the World's links to private investigators could shed new light on the unsolved killing of Daniel Morgan in 1987.
Mr Morgan, 37, was found with an axe in his head in south London.
Until his death he worked with Jonathan Rees, whose company has been linked to alleged email hacking.
Mr Rees was one of five men accused of murdering Mr Morgan in 2008, but after almost two years of legal wrangling, the trial collapsed in March when "supergrass" evidence was deemed to be unreliable.
Now Mr Watson is keen to explore the connections between Mr Rees and Alex Marunchak, who was the News of the World's crime editor in the late 1980s, and who later became the paper's Ireland editor.
He says he has seen evidence that the two men stayed in contact even when Mr Rees was sent to prison for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in 2000.
BBC Radio 4's Report programme has also seen evidence suggesting that a week before Daniel Morgan died, he said he was taking a story exposing police corruption to Mr Marunchak, and was promised a payment of £40,000.
In a letter Alex Marunchak's lawyers told the BBC: "Our client has never had any contact with Daniel Morgan and denies all allegations of wrongdoing."
However, Mr Watson wants all relevant information and evidence to be taken into account as part of the judicial inquiry into wrong doing by the media.
He told The Report he would write to the prime minister to ask for Daniel Morgan's case to be scrutinised by Lord Leveson's inquiry into phone hacking.
Daniel's brother Alastair Morgan, who is calling for a separate judicial inquiry into the case welcomed the move:
"It's really heartening to hear that somebody is taking this seriously," he said.
"For years and years our concerns were dismissed."
Jonathan Rees has stated he did not commission, or in any way incite or procure anyone to "hack" any computer.
The Report is on BBC Radio 4 on on Thursday 18 August at 20:00 BST. Listen via the BBC iPlayer or download the programme podcast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14545133
#Hackgate:[all 5 were police officers ]IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE...
Note that the Barnet Borough Commander who investigated the bent cops was none other than Chief Superintendent John Yates (mentioned in case notes paragraphs #10, #21, #28, #42, #44, #45 etc etc.)
Neutral Citation Number: [2001] EWCA Crim 975
Case Nos:2000/01310 Z3; 2000/01312 Z3, 2000/04911 Z3; 2000/04911 Y3, 2000/05145 Y3; 2000/05146 Y3
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Wednesday 11th April 2001
B e f o r e :
LORD JUSTICE POTTER
MRS JUSTICE HALLETT
and
Mr JUSTICE GIBBS
____________________
REGINA
- and -
(1) CHRISTOPHER DRURY
(2) ROBERT CLARK
(3) THOMAS REYNOLDS
(4) TERANCE O'CONNELL
(5) THOMAS KINGSTON
[all 5 were police officers]
____________________
Orlando Pownall Esquire, Michael Holland Esquire and Jonathan Rees Esquire (instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service)
Roy Amlot QC and Michael Egan Esquire (instructed by Messrs Russell Jones & Walker, London, for the first defendant)
Alun Jones QC and Peter Doyle Esquire (instructed by Messrs Russell Jones & Walker, London, for the second defendant)
Anthony Evans QC and Sean Enright Esquire (instructed by Messrs Martin Murray and Associates, London, for the third defendant)
Michael Wood QC and Miss Johanna Cutts (instructed by Messrs Kingsley Napley, London, for the fourth defendant)
Anthony Glass QC (instructed by Messrs Russell Jones & Walker, London, for the fifth defendant)
David Perry Esquire appeared for the Home Office
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2001/975.html
#Hackgate: #Journalist caught on tape in police bugging! (2002)
Tabloid journalists were caught on tape by a police surveillance operation obtaining information from a private detective agency which in turn paid corrupt officers for confidential police material.
Transcripts record reporters from the News of the World, Mirror and Sunday Mirror doing business with Jonathon Rees, whose company, Southern Investigations, was being secretly bugged. The tapes provide a rare picture of the covert black market in data run by private detectives and corrupt police.
A separate Guardian investigation for today's third and final issue of the Big Brother series has established the ease with which snoopers can obtain personal data for anyone willing to meet their price.
A private eye provided only with a reporter's business card took less than 24 hours to obtain a month's worth of his mobile phone records, and only a week to obtain a detailed record of his banking transactions, his home address, telephone number and national insurance number.
Operation Nigeria, the surveillance of Southern Investigations between May and September 1999, was run by the Metropolitan police's anti-corruption squad CIB3. It ended when listening devices picked up evidence that Southern's director was involved in a plot to plant drugs on a woman so that her husband would win a custody battle for their child. Rees was subsequently jailed for that, along with a serving detective, Austin Warnes.
Documents from Operation Nigeria reveal that senior officers were keen to bring charges against reporters if any evidence was found that they had committed crimes. However, no such evidence surfaced of criminal offences by any of the reporters or that they knew the origin of the material.
Alex Marunchak, of the News of the World, is identified by the transcripts as a lucrative customer of the agency. In a bugged telephone call in July 1999, Rees said Mr Marunchak owed the agency £7,555. The transcript says that the money would be paid in the name Media Investigations. Rees added that the account would be "back within the agreed limit" by the following week.
The transcripts also contain details of a call Rees made to Mr Marunchak the same month in which they discuss information about Kenneth Noye, the notorious criminal later convicted of the M25 road rage murder.
Rees asked: "You know the information I gave you about Noye?" He then explained that his contact had come up with something else and went on to talk about a minor royal couple who, he claimed, were suffering marriage and financial difficulties.
Asked to comment on the transcripts, Mr Marunchak said: "Are you recording this call?" Asked if he disputed that he bought material from Rees, he said: "You haven't heard me admit it."
The Mirror was another client. Rees discussed delivering a bag containing a hidden camera to the Mirror and the following month claimed the paper owed him £12,000.
In July 1999 the bugging operation captured a conversation between Rees and another corrupt serving detective, Tom Kingston - later jailed for drug theft - in which they discussed a police contact in the diplomatic protection squad at Buckingham Palace whose firearms certificate was withdrawn because he had been taking steroids.
On July 28, the story appeared in the Mirror under reporter Gary Jones's byline with the headline Drug Claim Royal Cop in Gun Ban". Mr Jones told us: "We used the agency on occasion. They came on with the odd tip, what they'd heard from the Old Bill."
Doug Kempster of the Sunday Mirror also obtained stories from the agency. In one conversation caught on tape, Rees and Kingston claim the reporter had been frantically trying to find a confidential internal police report, obtained by Kingston, which had got lost. "Get me that one back," Kingston told Rees.
"Get him to do what he's got to do. Otherwise we ain't getting no more." Rees replied: "We only do it for newspapers really." Mr Kempster, now a government press officer, was asked what information the Sunday Mirror had purchased from Rees. He said: "It's something we just don't comment on.
"Rees was a man who put up stories. Where he got them from was up to him. If anyone rings up and gives you info, there's no way of knowing where it comes from."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/sep/21/privacy
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