A Scotland Yard detective “deliberately” broke a string of rules and manipulated supergrass witnesses in an attempt to solve a notorious axe murder, a court was told yesterday.
The High Court heard claims that the Metropolitan police adopted a “blinkered” approach to the 1987 murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator, and relied on evidence from a string of “dodgy, desperate criminals” to try and obtain convictions.
A group of former suspects suing the Met claim that Dave Cook, a former detective chief superintendent, coached and manipulated witnesses and lied to a trial judge.
The murder of Morgan, who was found with an axe buried in his head in a pub car park in Sydenham, southeast London, has been plagued with allegations of police corruption. It has never been solved despite five separate police inquiries costing £50 million.
Three men, including Morgan’s business partner Jonathan Rees, were charged with the murder and spent time in prison before the case collapsed in 2011 when the judge excluded supergrass witness evidence.
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Mr Rees and his brothers-in-law, Gary and Glen Vian, yesterday launched their High Court civil claim for millions in damages from the Met, which they accuse of malicious prosecution. Sid Fillery, a detective who originally investigated the murder before taking on Morgan’s job, who was charged with perverting the course of justice before the case was dropped, is also suing.
Nicholas Bowen, QC, acting for Mr Rees, Mr Fillery and Glen Vian, told the court yesterday that Mr Cook, who led a new investigation in 2002, “coached and manipulated” the two main witnesses, failed to investigate lines of inquiry, suppressed documents and lied to the trial judge.
Mr Bowen said: “Perhaps he thought he was acting in some noble cause, by seeking the conviction of the men he wrongly believed were guilty, through means he must have known were wholly improper, on the basis that the end justified the means.”
He said there was never any credible evidence against his clients and the Met relied on a series of dodgy criminals who struck deals to reduce their long sentences.
The Met is fighting the claim and says there was “ample” justification for the arrest and prosecution of the men. Jeremy Johnson, QC, cited “multiple accounts” from associates of the men that linked them to the murder. Covert audio also uncovered “incriminating conversations” between Mr Rees and the Vian brothers, he said.
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Mr Johnson said that the Met accepted that one of the witnesses was improperly prompted by Mr Cook but said there was a “proper basis” to arrest and prosecute each of the claimants. He said that the killing had exposed an “invidious web of corrupt police officers” in south London in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Times revealed last month that Mr Cook, who has left the Met, is in Scotland and has refused to give evidence.
The trial continues.