THE Metropolitan Police has agreed a legal settlement with the family of Daniel Morgan, admitting that its investigation into his unsolved murder 36 years ago was “marred by a cycle of corruption, professional incompetence and defensiveness.”

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley apologised “unequivocally and unreservedly” today for the force’s failure to catch the private investigator’s attacker.

“From the earliest stages, his family have been repeatedly and inexcusably let down by the Metropolitan Police,” Sir Mark said.

“This case has been marred by a cycle of corruption, professional incompetence and defensiveness that has repeated itself over and over again.”

Sir Mark said that campaigning by Mr Morgan’s family had exposed systemic failings in the force after a string of inquiries over the decades unearthed allegations of corruption and led to accusations that the Met had put its reputation above finding the killer.

His death is one of the longest-running and most notorious unsolved cases to have faced the Met, which is still no closer to bringing his killer to justice after five police inquiries, an inquest and an eight-year independent inquiry.

Mr Morgan’s family said in a statement that they had proposed to bring civil claims arising from his murder and the ensuing investigations into it against the Metropolitan Police commissioner.

After a formal mediation process took place this month, “the parties were able to agree a mutually satisfactory settlement of the proposed claims, including an admission of liability on behalf of the commissioner in respect of the conduct of his officers in response to the murder.”

Both sides said details of the settlement, reported to be worth £2 million, are confidential.

Mr Morgan was killed with an axe in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south-east London, on March 10 1987. 

The initial investigation into his death was heavily criticised. The murder scene was not searched and was left unguarded and there were no alibis sought for all the suspects.

A corruption probe by Hampshire Police was later compromised when a senior Met officer was appointed to work with the team.

In June 2021, an independent panel accused the Met of “a form of institutional corruption” for concealing or denying failings over the unsolved murder.

Last March, a police watchdog said the force had failed to learn lessons from the case.

Documents relating to  the inquiry into Mr Morgan’s killing were found in May in a locked cabinet at New Scotland Yard that had not been used for several years.