Daniel Morgan axe murder inquiry finds 'institutional corruption' at Met Police
| Published date | 15 June 2021 |
| Publication title | Daily Mirror, The: Web Edition Articles (London, England) |
The final report into his murder -Britain's most-investigated, unsolved murder -was published on Tuesday.
The independent panel examining the killing, chaired by former Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Baroness Nuala O'Loan, called for Scotland Yard to apologise to Mr Morgan's family.
Home Secretary Priti Patel told the House of Commons: "This is one of the most devastating episodes in the history of the Metropolitan Police."
The Home Secretary has today written to Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick to demand a response to the issues outlined in the report -and will ask the HMICFRS watchdog to look into the issues too.
Asked if Dame Cressida should resign, Mr Morgan's brother Alistair said on Tuesday: “Absolutely, she should consider her position.”
The Home Secretary told MPs the “deeply alarming” report “finds examples of corrupt behaviour”, and that “the Met Police made a litany of mistakes and this irreparably damaged the chances of successful prosecution of Daniel Morgan’s murderer.”
Ms Patel said: “Police corruption is a betrayal of everything policing stands for in this country. It erodes public confidence in our entire criminal justice system.”
She added: “It is devastating that 34 years after he was murdered, nobody has been brought to justice.”
Baroness O'Loan said: “We believe that concealing or denying failings, for the sake of an organisation's public image is dishonesty on the part of the organisation for reputational benefit, and constitutes a form of institutional corruption.”
She called for the creation of a “statutory duty of candour” to be owed by all law enforcement agencies.
Baroness O'Loan was asked if she thought the panel's findings were as important as those of the Macpherson report into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence which branded the Met Police as "institutionally racist".
She said: “Yes I do. I think they are very, very important for the Metropolitan Police.”
In a statement through their lawyer, the family of Mr Morgan said: "We welcome the recognition that we -and the public at large -have been failed over the decades by a culture of corruption and cover up in the Metropolitan Police, an institutionalised corruption that has permeated successive regimes in the Metropolitan Police and beyond to this day."
The report is highly critical of a number of senior serving and former Met officers including current...
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