Brighton pensioner jailed for life for hiring hitman to murder his wife

A Brighton pensioner has been jailed for life for hiring a hitman to murder his wife so that he could live with his lover.

Allen Morgan, 74, of Stanstead Crescent, Brighton, was today sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years at Luton Crown Court.

The judge, Sir Martin Spencer, known as Mr Justice Spencer, sentenced Morgan after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to murder after a nine-week trial.

Bedfordshire Police said: “Carol Morgan was killed in a frenzied and sustained attack on Thursday 13 August 1981.

“It was proven in court that Allen Morgan had sought to arrange the killing and financially profited as a result.

“Allen went on to live a life on the south coast with Carol’s son and daughter and his mistress Margaret, whom he later married.”

Margaret Morgan stood trial alongside Allen Morgan but was cleared of being involved in the murder plot.

The senior investigating officer, Detective Superintendent Carl Foster, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, oversaw the cold case review into Carol’s death and led the ensuing case to court.

Detective Superintendent Foster, now retired, said: “Seeing Allen Morgan sentenced to spending 22 years, which will likely amount to the rest of his days, behind bars is momentous.

“For over four decades, Carol’s murder went undetected and no one had ever been prosecuted for their involvement in this truly sickening act.

“Carol did not deserve to die for someone else’s gain. She did not deserve to be erased from history, and I am extremely pleased that we have finally been able to deliver her justice.

“Allen Morgan’s actions have caused irreparable damage to those who knew and loved Carol and he has been able to freely enjoy life at its peak.

“Now facing his latter years, he will finally pay the price for cutting short an innocent life.

“Clearly this case still leaves some questions unanswered. I would hope that Allen, as he contemplates life in prison, finally tells the truth about exactly what happened to his wife and mother to the two children he raised as his own, so that we can also bring the person responsible for the physical act of killing her to justice.”

Bedfordshire Police said: “Despite a painstaking investigation run by retired Detective Chief Superintendent Brian Prickett between 1981 and 1983, no one was brought to justice for the murder.

“It lay on file for regular review until 2018 when the Cold Case Investigation Unit decided that there were further opportunities to progress the investigation.

“Crucially, alongside financial and witness evidence gathered by original detectives at the time, the team were able to present new evidence from key witness Jane Bunting, who revealed that Allen had discussed hiring someone to kill Carol.”

Retired Detective Chief Superintendent Prickett said: “I am very grateful to the cold case team for taking up Carol’s murder and building upon the meticulous evidence of the 1980s case to successfully ensure that Allen Morgan will no longer walk the streets a free man.

“This case has been a story of two generations of policing coming together. The dogged detective work by colleagues four decades apart has shown that no murder investigation is ever closed no matter how much time has passed.”

Lawyer Shan Saunders, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Our thoughts today are with Carol’s family and friends who have finally seen justice served for her murder over 40 years ago.

“Having lived a lie for decades, Allen Morgan will now almost certainly spend the rest of his life in prison for his role in Carol’s murder.

“This has been a complex and unusual case, not least because it dates back over 40 years.

“Modern-day lines of inquiry, including forensic analysis, CCTV and phone data were not available then so the case we built against Allen Morgan relied primarily on the accounts of witnesses.

“Their testimonies, including that of a new witness who stated that Morgan had asked her whether she knew someone who would kill his wife, provided the evidence to convince a jury that he had conspired to murder her.

“This case clearly demonstrates that the police can and will investigate crimes and the Crown Prosecution Service will prosecute offences, however long ago they took place.”