Husband and lover ‘hired hitman to kill wife’
Allen Morgan and mistress accused of conspiring to murder Carol Morgan more than 40 years ago
‘The killer used an axe or heavy knife or machete to hack into her body and skull’
A HUSBAND and mistress hired a hitman to hack his former wife to death, a court has heard after a cold case was reopened.
Allen Morgan, 73, and his then-lover Margaret Morgan, 75, who are now married, deny conspiring to murder Carol Morgan more than 40 years ago so they could be together.
Carol, then aged 36, was attacked and killed on Aug 13 1981 at a convenience store she ran with Mr Morgan, then aged 31, in Linslade near Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.
The killer, who remains unidentified, “used an axe or heavy knife or machete to hack into her body and skull causing horrifying injuries from which she died” in a “brutal murder”, prosecutors say.
Opening the prosecution case at Luton Crown Court yesterday, Pavlos Panayi KC explained to the jury: “In the summer of 1981 the first defendant, Allen Morgan, who was married to the deceased Carol Morgan, was having an affair. His lover was the second defendant, who is now called Margaret Morgan.”
He said that at the time, the “passionate but forbidden and adulterous love affair” had lasted more than a year but that Mr Morgan could not divorce because of his financial ties to Carol and spiralling debts.
He said that after Carol’s death, his mistress – who was then called Margaret Spooner – left her husband and moved in with Mr Morgan and the pair have since married.
The defendants, of Stanstead Crescent, Brighton, Sussex, are “alleged to have arranged and paid for” the killing, the barrister said.
The prosecutor said that on the day Carol was killed, Mr Morgan took her two children, for whom the alleged victim had sole custody, to the cinema in Luton and was not due back until 11pm.
Carol was left alone in the shop but after she closed it, “an attacker or attackers entered the premises and struck”, the prosecution said, leaving her dead in the building’s store room at about 7pm.
Mr Panayi said that Mr Morgan had told police in a witness statement that he was “shocked by this discovery and said he had played no part in the murder”.
The lawyer added that Mr Morgan said “cash and a large quantity of cigarettes had been stolen and were missing from the shop”. The barrister said police officers found “no sign of any forced entry” and that Mr Morgan “had never before taken them out without their mother”.
After the case was reopened, Mr Panayi said that a woman named Jane Bunting, 60, came forward to police in March 2021 to claim that she had been at a pub with Mr Morgan at the time, when she was 17. Ms Bunting told officers that in the pub, Mr Morgan had speculated whether she knew anyone who could help him kill his wife.
The man who carried out the murder “may never be brought to justice”, the barrister added.
The trial continues.