The Met Police has been institutionally corrupt in “concealing or denying failings” in a botched south-east London murder investigation, a new report has found.
The force’s first priority was its own reputation, according to the independent report on police conduct related to the death of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator who was killed with an axe outside the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham in 1987. No one has ever been brought to justice for Mr Morgan’s death, despite several police inquiries and two charges.
The 1,200-page report found that “the family of Daniel Morgan suffered grievously as a consequence of the failure to bring his family to justice, the unwarranted assurances which they were given, the misinformation which was put into the public domain, and the denial of failings in investigation, including failing to acknowledge professional competence, individuals’ venal behaviour, and managerial and organisational failures.
“The Metropolitan Police also repeatedly failed to take a fresh, thorough and critical look at past failings.
“Concealing or denying failings, for the sake of the organisation’s public image, is dishonesty on the part of the organisation for reputational benefit and constitutes a form of institutional corruption.”
The report added that “a culture still exists that inhibits both organisational and individual accountability” in the force.
The family of Mr Morgan, a father of two, welcomed the findings of the report in a statement. They added that they and the wider public 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.”
Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick apologised to the family of Mr Morgan,
“It is a matter of great regret that no-one has been brought to justice and that our mistakes have compounded the pain suffered by Daniel’s family,” she said. “For that I apologise again now.
“I have been personally determined that the Met provided the Panel with the fullest level of co-operation in an open and transparent manner, with complete integrity at all times.”.”