Daniel Morgan: Delay to report on axe murder 'kick in teeth'

The handling of Daniel Morgan's murder has been the subject of five inquiries

The family of Daniel Morgan has criticised a Home Office decision to review a report into his unsolved murder before it can be made public.

The private investigator was killed with an axe in a pub car park in south London in 1987.

The panel investigating the case was due to publish its report on Monday, but government lawyers will now examine it first, due to "national security".

Mr Morgan's family called the delay "an outrage" and a "kick in the teeth".

The panel chairperson, Baroness O'Loan, said the Home Office review was "unnecessary and not consistent with the panel's independence".

A Home Office spokesperson said the home secretary had a duty to ensure the report complied with "human rights and national security considerations".

"This has nothing to do with the independence of the report and the Home Office is not seeking to make edits to it," the spokesperson added.

'Betrays her ignorance'

Mr Morgan, from Monmouthshire, was found dead in Sydenham in March 1987.

His family has always maintained he was on the cusp of exposing police corruption.

Although he had not been stripped of his valuables, notes he was earlier seen writing in the pub had been ripped from his trouser pocket.

• Timeline: Daniel Morgan axe murder

There have been five separate failed investigations into Mr Morgan's murder - all plagued by allegations of police corruption and links between police, private investigators and tabloid journalists.

In 2011 a trial was abandoned, and two years later the government commissioned an inquiry into the murder.

Then Home Secretary Theresa May, who set up the inquiry panel, described Mr Morgan's death as "one of the country's most notorious unsolved murders".

The panel's remit was to "shine a light on the circumstances of Daniel Morgan's murder, its background and the handling of the case over the whole period since March 1987".

Mr Morgan's family criticised Home Secretary Priti Patel's "unnecessary" decision to delay publication.

Analysis

By BBC's Home Affairs correspondent Tom Symonds

This report won't be able to tell us who the murderers were - but it might be able to shed light, finally, on why the case hasn't been solved.

For Daniel's family, in particular his brother Alastair, that is crucial and the potential this report has to embarrass the Met Police is very real.

The Home Office says it has a duty to check the report will not breach anyone's human rights, or put national security at risk.

What's not clear is why the government left it until the very last minute to intervene, given the impact that would inevitably have on Daniel's family.

It has said it is not "seeking" to edit the report, but could redact it, leaving passages of black which raise new questions rather than finally settling old ones.

That appears to have frustrated the panel - which has a robust view of its own independence.

With the end in sight, it has infuriated Daniel's family.

In a statement, it said of the intervention: "It is an outrage which betrays her ignorance - and the ignorance of those advising her - with regard to her powers in law and the panel's terms of reference.

"It also reveals a disturbing disregard for the public interest in safeguarding the independence of the panel and its report."

The statement added: "For us, as the family of Daniel Morgan, the home secretary's belated and unwarranted interference in this process is simply unacceptable."

The family called on Ms Patel to "try to understand... the need for sensitivity and basic human decency in the exercise of her powers, mindful of the unending distress she is causing to each and every member of our family".

'Police corruption'

The family's lawyer Raju Bhatt said the family had "every reason to be suspicious about the motives behind this very belated and completely unwarranted intervention".

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he added that there was "every reason to believe that police corruption was at the heart of this ordeal the family have faced".

Mr Morgan's brother Alastair said the family was looking to the panel to defend itself from Home Office interference.

He wrote on Twitter: "We're now looking to the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel to defend their independence and fend off this unwarranted intervention from the home secretary.

"We're very hopeful that they will."

Nuala O'Loan and Priti Patel are at odds over the delay

On Tuesday, the panel released a statement saying in the subsequent eight years there had been "no mention" of any need to review the report before publication.

It also provided details of how both national security and human rights legislation had been adhered to during the investigation.

The panel was originally told the home secretary would be unable to table the report in Parliament on 17 May, as planned, because of delays caused by the Duke of Edinburgh's death and local elections.

A new date of 24 May was set, but the Home Office has said before a publication date can be agreed checks must be made.

A spokesperson said: "Under the terms it was commissioned in 2013, it is for the home secretary to publish the report which she hopes to do as soon as possible.

"The home secretary also has an obligation to make sure the report complies with human rights and national security considerations.

"As soon as we receive the report, we can begin those checks and agree a publication date."

The spokesperson added Ms Patel hoped to meet Mr Morgan's family to "discuss the report and its findings in person".