AFTER years of campaigning by a murdered private investigator’s family, an independent panel has been set up to look at the role police corruption played in his death.

The remit of the panel will be to look at the circumstances of Daniel Morgan’s murder, its background and the handling of the case over the period since he was killed 26 years ago.

It will address the questions his family has been asking since he was found with an axe embedded in his head in the car park of the Golden Lion pub, Sydenham Road, Sydenham, on March 10, 1987.

They include about police involvement in the murder, the role played by police corruption in protecting his killers and preventing them from being brought to justice, and the failure to confront the corruption.

Other questions to be addressed include the incidence of connections between private investigators, police officers and journalists at the News of the World and other parts of the media and alleged corruption involved in the linkages between them.

In a statement issued on behalf of his family Daniel’s brother Alastair said: “In 2011, more than 24 years after Daniel’s murder, the Metropolitan Police finally admitted that their first investigation of this crime was crippled by police corruption.

“As Daniel’s family, we were aware of that corruption within three weeks of the murder: we said so then, and we have been saying so ever since.

“Through almost three decades of public protests, meetings with police officers at the highest ranks, lobbying of politicians and pleas to the media, we have found ourselves lied to, fobbed off, bullied, degraded and let down time and time again.

“What we have been required to endure has been nothing less than mental torture.

“It has changed our relationship with this country forever.

“In the meanwhile, the allegations and evidence of serious corruption within the Metropolitan Police – extending to recent history and the highest ranks – remained unaddressed through five police investigations and a prosecution aborted after 18 months of pre-trial argument.

“Over most of this period, we witnessed a complete unwillingness by police and successive government to face up to what was occurring, and ultimately a complete failure by police leadership to deal effectively with serious police criminality.

“We trust and hope the panel, through its examination and publication of all relevant material and information, will assist the authorities to confront and acknowledge this failure for once and for all, so that we may at last be able to get on with our lives.”

The Daniel Morgan Independent Panel will be chaired by Sir Stanley Burton, a retired Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal.

Other members of the panel will be appointed in the coming weeks.

Home Secretary Theresa May said: “Mr Morgan’s family has waged a long campaign for those responsible for his murder to be brought to justice.

“I have met with the family and, after further serious consideration with them and their representatives, I am today announcing the creation of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel.

“Importantly, the panel’s work will put Mr Morgan’s family at the centre of the process and the approach to this issue has the support of the Met’s Commissioner and the Independent Police Complaints Commission.”