Trial: Hitman had 'inside knowledge' in 1981 murder
A hitman allegedly hired by a couple to murder the man’s shopkeeper wife more than 40 years ago had “inside knowledge” about where money was kept, a jury heard.
The body of 36-year-old Carol Morgan was found in her shop, Morgan's Store, in Linslade, Bedfordshire, on 13 August 1981.
Luton Crown Court had previously heard Allen and Margaret Morgan, who had been in a “passionate but forbidden and adulterous love affair”, hatched a plan to murder her.
Mr Morgan, 73, and Mrs Morgan, 75, of Stanstead Crescent, Woodingdean, Brighton, deny conspiracy to murder.
The killer, who has never been caught, used an axe or machete to attack Carol Morgan in the storeroom of Morgan's Food Fare in Finch Crescent, Linslade, near Leighton Buzzard, on the evening of 13 August 1981.
Prosecutor Pavlos Panayi KC told the jury that a desk drawer in the shop where £400 was being kept had “a secret mechanism” that would not open unless a middle drawer was moved into an exact position.
When questioned by the police, Mr Morgan said £400 cash had been taken from the desk and £35 from the till, along with 1,400 cigarettes from the shop.
He described the desk mechanism as a “Chinese puzzle” that only he and possibly Carol knew how to work.
Mr Panayi asked the jury: “How did a random intruder know where the money was and how to access it?
“The killer had some inside information before entering premises. The obvious conclusion was that the killer was told by Allen Morgan where he would find the cash, which may well have constituted part-payment for the murder.”
Mr Panayi said both defendants had made unexplained cash withdrawals in the days leading up to the murder. He said on the day of the killing Allen Morgan had told the police he was asleep when, in fact, he was seen at a branch of Nationwide withdrawing £250.
Outlining the case against the couple, who had been having a year-long affair, he said: “The murder of Carol Morgan was no random attack. It was planned and paid for by the two defendants in the dock.”
Mr Panayi said a witness would tell the jury she overheard a man in a pub in Dunstable brag about how he got £500 and between 500 and 1,000 cigarettes "for a job in Leighton Buzzard".
The woman is alleged to have seen Allen Morgan talking to him twice in Leighton Buzzard.
Secret police recordings
In a letter Mr Morgan wrote to his current wife in 2019, after they had been arrested, he said: “Trust works on both side. If I didn’t trust you, you wouldn’t be here and I would not.”
The jury was also played secret police recordings of conversations between the couple when they were being taken in for questioning in 2019.
Margaret Morgan was heard to say “Shush”, indicating she thought they were being taped. He said: “I am sorry” and “I don’t want to say anything because they might have…”
Two years later, on 1 July 2021, he was recorded asking her: “Do you still love me?” and “I trust you forever.”
Then, on 25 July 2023, as they were travelling again to the police station, he said: “I am sorry. I haven’t done anything.”
She replied said: “Stop going over it. They are probably listening in.”
Allen Morgan said: “I ain’t done nothing. Neither of us have. I don’t know what they have got.”
She replied: “Well, they must have something.”
The prosecutor said: “The defendants planned and agreed the murder of Allen’s first wife, Carol. They were tied to each other - each with the power to bring the mutual destruction of a criminal prosecution on each other.
"There was an unbreakable bond based on their joint responsibility for the killing of Allen Morgan’s former wife.”
The case continues.
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