Husband and mistress hired hitman to hack wife to death, court hears

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”, prosecutors say.

Opening the prosecution case at Luton Crown Court on Wednesday, Pavlos Panayi KC told jurors: “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 Mr Morgan could not divorce because of financial ties to his then wife and spiralling debts.

He said that after Carol Morgan’s death, Margaret Morgan – who was then called Margaret Spooner – left her husband and moved in with Mr Morgan and they had since married.

The defendants, of Brighton, East Sussex, are “alleged to have arranged and paid for” the killing, the barrister said.

The prosecutor said that on the day Carol Morgan was killed, Allen took her two children, for whom the alleged victim had sole custody, to the cinema in Luton and was not due back until 11pm.

She 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 store room at about 7pm.

Pub woman came forward

Mr Panayi said Allen had told police in a witness statement that he was “shocked by this discovery and said he had played no part in the murder and said cash and a large quantity of cigarettes had been stolen and were missing from the shop”.

The barrister said police found “no sign of any forced entry” and that Allen had “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 Allen at the time, when she was 17, and he 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.