Man guilty of prison officer revenge murder

Elias Morgan killed father-of-three Lenny Scott in an "act of retaliation"

A drug dealer has been found guilty of murdering a former prison officer in an "act of revenge" four years after he seized a mobile phone from his jail cell.

Father-of-three Lenny Scott was shot six times outside a gym in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, on 8 February 2024 as he emerged from a jiu-jitsu training session.

Gunman Elias Morgan, 35, was convicted of murder by unanimous verdicts after a nine-week trial at Preston Crown Court, while his co-accused Anthony Cleary, 29, was found not guilty of both murder and manslaughter.

The jury heard the discovery of the phone in HMP Altcourse, Liverpool, exposed a sexual relationship between Morgan and another prison officer called Sarah Williams.

Lenny Scott was the father of twin boys and a younger child

Neither defendant appeared to react as the eight men and three women of the jury returned their verdicts, after five hours and 24 minutes of deliberations.

Cleary had been accused of supporting Morgan's murder plan by delivering a getaway van and an electric bike to the scene of the shooting, but told the jury he had no idea his close friend was planning to shoot anyone.

The jury had heard by the time of the shooting Morgan was out of prison after completing a sentence for drugs offences.

However he had been re-arrested on suspicion of possessing the phone in prison and was on bail ahead of a trial scheduled for 11 days after the shooting.

Alex Leach KC, prosecuting, had told the jury the evidence revealed a "powerful image" of Morgan being "driven by a desire for revenge" to kill Mr Scott.

The jury heard the sequence of events that led to the murder began on 26 March 2020 when Mr Scott refused a cash bribe to "lose" the phone found in Morgan's cell.

At the time Mr Scott told his father, Neil Scott, that Morgan had said to him: "I'll bide my time, but I promise I will get you" before making a gun gesture with his fingers.

In the days that followed Mr Scott became increasingly afraid and reported further threats to both prison management and to Merseyside Police.

The jury heard a recording of a call Mr Scott made to the police 101 service, where he told the operator Morgan had described his address, his partner and his children "to a tee" and that he was in fear for the lives of his family.

Mr Scott told the operator: "He said he's got lads everywhere, he's described my vehicle and he's described my house and what my girlfriend and twin boys look like."

He added: "This is me third jail, I've been threatened all the time, but this is a bit..."

The operator suggested: "Too close to home?"

Mr Scott said: "Yeah".

Morgan was moved to a different wing 10 days after the discovery of the phone and the threats to Mr Scott appeared to end.

Anthony Cleary (left), turned on Elias Morgan during the trial and said his friend had called him and confessed to shooting someone

In 2021, Mr Scott was sacked from the prison service after punching a prisoner while attempting to restrain him.

That prisoner was found to have no involvement in anything that happened subsequently.

The jury heard Mr Scott moved on with his life and found work at a warehouse in Warrington.

But in early 2024, Morgan appeared to be planning to strike.

Detectives at Lancashire Police found evidence that on 3 January that year, Morgan was scoping out places linked to Mr Scott.

The killer drove close to Mr Scott's home in Prescot, Merseyside, a gym in the Speke area of Liverpool where he sometimes trained and the gym on Peel Road, Skelmersdale, where the shooting would later take place.

Lenny Scott reported multiple threats four years before he was killed

On 7 February, Cleary drove a low-loader truck with a white van on the back to an estate in Skelmersdale a few minutes away from the gym.

He told the jury he had been asked to move the van by Morgan and was paid £150, but did not question why.

The following day CCTV showed Morgan leaving his family home in Highgate Street, Edge Hill, in a Mercedes GLC car at 16:59 GMT and travelling towards Skelmersdale.

Shortly before 18:00, the Mercedes arrived in the Darfield estate, close to where the van had been left by Cleary.

The jury heard Morgan unloaded a black Sur Ron brand electric bike from the back of the van and used it to drive to the gym car park, before returning to the van.

At 18:45 Morgan, by now wearing a high-visibility jacket, arrived back in the gym car park on the bike where he remained for around 53 minutes.

In court Mr Scott's family wiped away tears as CCTV footage was played showing the oblivious victim walking out of the gym into Morgan's ambush.

As he stood talking to a friend by his car, Morgan could be seen striding over before raising a handgun.

Mr Scott tried to flee but collapsed out of frame of the camera, while Morgan fled the scene on the bike.

Detectives scouring through CCTV footage connected to the gunman to the van, and established it was registered to a cleaning company run by Morgan's brother – Ezra Morgan.

The Mercedes was later found abandoned in the Mossley Hill area of Liverpool.

In court Cleary's legal team unexpectedly accused Morgan of confessing to the shooting in a call to Cleary hours afterwards.

Under questioning from his barrister, Tim Forte KC, Cleary said: "He [Morgan] rang me to say he had done someone in Skem and I needed to get rid of me phone."

He said he asked Mr Morgan whether it had anything to do with the van he left there the previous evening, and was told it was.

Mr Forte asked if he believed Mr Morgan at the time, and Mr Cleary said: "He's a bit of a joker, he's always messing around.

"But he didn't sound like he was messing around."

Morgan claimed he was seeing a man about a dog around the time of the shooting.

After the verdicts the trial judge, Mr Justice Goose, told Morgan he would be sentenced on 2 September.

Morgan nodded quietly as he was led to the cells.