Chinese puzzle box hid cash for hitman ‘hired to kill wife’

A HITMAN allegedly hired by a couple to murder the husband’s shopkeeper wife more than 40 years ago was told where to find money in a secret “Chinese puzzle” box, a jury has heard.

The killer, who has never been caught, used an axe or machete to attack Carol Morgan in the store room of Morgan’s Food Fare in Linslade near Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire on the evening of August 13 1981.

Luton Crown Court was told Carol’s husband, Allen Morgan, and his now wife Margaret Morgan had been having an affair and hatched a plan to murder the 36-year-old mother of two.

Pavlos Panayi KC, prosecuting, told the jury a desk drawer in the shop where £400 was being kept had a mechanism that would only open if another middle drawer was moved into an exact position. When questioned by the police, Mr Morgan said £400 in cash was taken from the desk, £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 the 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,” said Mr Panayi.

Mr Morgan, 73, and his second wife Margaret, now 75, of Brighton, deny conspiracy to 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 Mr Morgan had told the police he was asleep when in fact he was seen at a branch of Nationwide withdrawing £250.

Outlining the case, 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 the jury would hear from Jane Bunting, who was 17 at the time of the killing. She will allege that Mr Morgan was with Margaret in the Dolphin pub in Linslade when he asked Ms Bunting if she knew anyone who could help him kill his wife.

Mr Panayi said that on the evening of the killing, Mr Morgan had taken Carol’s two children to the cinema in Luton, providing himself with an alibi.

It was alleged Margaret could not leave her husband because Mr Morgan could not financially support them unless Carol died. The trial continues.