Hitman had 'inside knowledge' in 1981 murder

Allen and Margaret Morgan deny conspiracy to murder

A hitman allegedly hired by a couple to murder the man’s shopkeeper wife more than 40 years ago had “inside knowledge” about where money was kept, a jury heard.

The body of 36-year-old Carol Morgan was found in her shop, Morgan's Store, in Linslade, Bedfordshire, on 13 August 1981.

Luton Crown Court had previously heard Allen and Margaret Morgan, who had been in a “passionate but forbidden and adulterous love affair”, hatched a plan to murder her.

Mr Morgan, 73, and Margaret Morgan, 75, of Stanstead Crescent, Woodingdean, Brighton, deny conspiracy to murder.

Carol Morgan was found at her shop in Linslade, Bedfordshire, in 1981

The killer, who has never been caught, used an axe or machete to attack Carol in the storeroom of Morgan's Food Fare in Finch Crescent, Linslade, near Leighton Buzzard, on the evening of 13 August 1981.

Prosecutor Pavlos Panayi KC told the jury that a desk drawer in the shop where £400 was being kept had “a secret mechanism” that would not open unless a middle drawer was moved into an exact position.

When questioned by the police, Mr Morgan said £400 cash had been taken from the desk and £35 from the till, along with 1,400 cigarettes from the shop.

He described the desk mechanism as a “Chinese puzzle” that only he and possibly Carol knew how to work.

Mr Panayi asked the jury: “How did a random intruder know where the money was and how to access it?

“The killer had some inside information before entering premises. The obvious conclusion was that the killer was told by Allen Morgan where he would find the cash, which may well have constituted part-payment for the murder.”

Carol Morgan was found at Morgan's Store, now The Corner Shop, on Finch Crescent

The prosecution said the killer had “inside knowledge” about where money was kept in the couple's shop

Mr Panayi said both defendants had made unexplained cash withdrawals in the days leading up to the murder. He said on the day of the killing Mr Morgan had told the police he was asleep when, in fact, he was seen at a branch of Nationwide withdrawing £250.

Outlining the case against the couple, who had been having a year-long affair, he said: “The murder of Carol Morgan was no random attack. It was planned and paid for by the two defendants in the dock.”

Mr Panayi said a witness would tell the jury she overheard a man in a pub in Dunstable brag about how he got £500 and between 500 and 1,000 cigarettes "for a job in Leighton Buzzard".

The woman is alleged to have seen Mr Morgan talking to him twice in Leighton Buzzard.

Allen and Margaret Morgan are appearing at Luton Crown Court

Secret police recordings

In a letter Mr Morgan wrote to his current wife in 2019, after they had been arrested, he said: “Trust works on both side. If I didn’t trust you, you wouldn’t be here and I would not.”

The jury was also played secret police recordings of conversations between the couple when they were being taken in for questioning in 2019.

Margaret Morgan was heard to say “Shush”, indicating she thought they were being taped. He said: “I am sorry” and “I don’t want to say anything because they might have…”

Two years later, on 1 July 2021, he was recorded asking her: “Do you still love me?” and “I trust you forever.”

Then, on 25 July 2023, as they were travelling again to the police station, he said: “I am sorry. I haven’t done anything.”

She replied said: “Stop going over it. They are probably listening in.”

Mr Morgan said: “I ain’t done nothing. Neither of us have. I don’t know what they have got.”

She replied: “Well, they must have something.”

The prosecutor said: “The defendants planned and agreed the murder of Allen’s first wife, Carol. They were tied to each other - each with the power to bring the mutual destruction of a criminal prosecution on each other.

"There was an unbreakable bond based on their joint responsibility for the killing of Allen Morgan’s former wife.”

Carol Morgan's first husband

Carol Morgan’s first husband, Richard Curtis, 78, told the jury he had separated from her after meeting someone else.

He said he met Carol in 1962 when he was aged 16 and was on holiday with a friend.

He was living in Wimbledon, south-west London, and she was living with her family in Highbury, north London.

They married in 1965 when she was 20 and bought a house in Swindon.

By 1971 the marriage was under strain, and Mr Curtis agreed with the prosecutor that he had met somebody else.

He said: “(Carol) was upset I was leaving - but there was no animosity.”

In 1978, Carol told Mr Curtis she had met Mr Morgan at a single parents’ group called Gingerbread, in Swindon.

The couple moved into the shop in Linslade in 1979. They bought it using money that came from the sale of her share of the matrimonial home.

Mr Curtis said he paid maintenance for their children and made provisions for them in his will.

After Carol’s murder he said the children remained with their stepfather, Mr Morgan.

The case continues.