Just focussing on the potential power of Feemasons for the moment, especially in the world of police and justice, please read this report - then look at what I say at the end:
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Ex-detective among six arrested over unsolved axe murder of private eye
· Yard man investigated pub killing 21 years ago
· Victim's business partner also believed to be held
Daniel Morgan, 37, whose body was found in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south London, on 10 March, 1987. Photograph: PA
A former Scotland Yard detective has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a man whose killing he investigated 21 years ago. The arrest was one of six made yesterday in connection with one of Britain's most controversial and high profile unsolved murders.
The arrests were linked to the death of private eye Daniel Morgan, who was found with an axe in his head in a south London pub car park in 1987. Five of the men were arrested for murder, while a sixth man, a serving Met police officer, was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office.
The latest arrests, which result from the fifth investigation into the killing, are partly the result of witnesses, some from the criminal underworld, coming forward with statements after many years.
It is understood that recent advances in DNA and changes in the law regarding the giving of evidence against fellow criminals have also played a part in the inquiry.
Sid Fillery, 61, a former detective sergeant attached to Catford police station in south London, now believed to be involved in running a pub on the Norfolk Broads, was arrested yesterday in connection with the murder.
Jonathan Rees, 53, Morgan's former partner, a freelance investigator, was also believed to be held. The others arrested are understood to be: Jimmy Cook, 53, Glenn Vian, 49, and Garry Vian, 47, all of south London. The serving Met officer arrested over misconduct allegations is a 24-year-year constable.
The men were arrested when they answered bail at Charing Cross police station or attended by appointment. The police constable, who was not named, was arrested at his place of work. He has been suspended pending the investigation.
The murdered man's brother, Alastair Morgan, who has fought for two decades to have the case brought to justice, welcomed the news. "This has been an extremely long and arduous battle for my family but we hope that this will perhaps be the beginning of the end," he said.
The latest investigation, headed by Assistant Commissioner John Yates, had a team of 36 re-examining tens of thousands of pages of statements from the original inquiries. The murder inquiry was relaunched three years ago and located in a different building from Scotland Yard to avoid any suggestion of impropriety because of allegations of police corruption from the start of the case, which has dogged the Met for years. Police are still seeking other witnesses and a £50,000 reward remains on offer.
"It has been over 21 years since Daniel's murder," said Yates said yesterday. "Since that tragic event there have been numerous investigations into his death, none of which have been able to establish who was responsible. The one consistent theme throughout has been the astonishing determination of the Morgan family to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.
"The current investigation has shown that there are still people out there who have highly pertinent evidence about this case. The arrests today demonstrate the Met's continued determination to bring those responsible to justice.
"I also hope that these arrests are a reassurance to those in the community who also have information or evidence about what happened to Daniel. We have long said that within south London the identity of those responsible for the murder is one of the worst kept local secrets. I urge anyone with any information, however small, to get in touch with us."
Morgan, 37, the son of an army officer, who had been born in Singapore and grown up in Gwent, studied agriculture and then worked as a salesman in Denmark and as a travel courier before joining a detective agency. He set up his own company, Southern Investigations, in 1984, with a partner, Jonathan Rees. He was married with two children, now both grown up.
Rees had close contacts with the local police and his colleagues believed he wanted to be a policeman himself.
Morgan was unhappy about the closeness of some of those relations and at the direction the work was taking. At the time of his death, it is believed Morgan was about to expose a south London drug network, possibly involving corrupt police officers.
Tension between Morgan and Rees heightened over Southern Investigations' contract with the local Belmont car auction in Charlton whose takings the firm had responsibility for depositing.
In early 1987, Rees claimed to have been robbed of £18,000 of the takings but Morgan had doubts about whether such a robbery had taken place. On March 10, Morgan agreed to meet Rees at the Golden Lion in Sydenham, not their normal local but one which happened to be inside the Catford police area where friends of Rees worked.
After the meeting, Morgan went to the pub's car park where he was struck on the back of the head with an axe and killed. The axe, which had been bound with sticking plaster to avoid leaving fingerprints, was left embedded in his head. His £800 Rolex watch was missing but £1,100 was in his pocket from which DNA traces have been found.
At the inquest, Rees suggested Morgan had made passes at the wives of clients and that there might be a motive for murder there. There were also tales that he had been watching Colombian cocaine dealers on behalf of a public figure whose daughter had become addicted.
On the original investigating team was Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery, a friend of Rees, who moonlighted for Southern Investigations and, after leaving the police, joined it. The first investigation petered out and by the time Morgan's body was released for burial in August 1988, there were no arrests.
Had it not been for Morgan's brother and mother, the case might have been logged as one of Scotland Yard's unsolved murders. But Alastair Morgan has been dogged in his pursuit of the case, lobbying politicians and police officers even when it seemed the case was closed.
Following his first intervention, the Police Complaints Authority (now the IPCC) asked Hampshire police to reinvestigate. Three people were arrested in 1989, but charges were dropped.
Two police officers who were arrested in connection with the inquiry have since been completely vindicated and there is no suggestion that they were involved in any way.
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COMMENT by T.B.:
Now, that report was in 'The Guardian'.
The report in the 'Daily Telegraph', however, included this short - but hugely significant - paragraph:
"At the request of Mr Morgan's family, officers involved in the latest investigation were required to declare that they were not Freemasons".
So, five investigations over nearly 20 years get nowhere.
The sixth investigation completely excludes police officers who are Freemasons. Hey presto! - after 21 yeares, six arrests are made.
By the way, the 'Telegraph' article is no longer available on the Net.
Make of that what you will. But I have retained a paper print-out of the article
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