A POLICE chief has refused to answer questions on whether officers knew the News of the World (NotW) was allegedly interfering in an investigation into the murder of private eye Daniel Morgan.

NotW staff are accused of harassing detective David Cook in 2002, while he was investigating the murder of Mr Morgan, as a favour to one of the suspects, Jonathan Rees, who worked for the tabloid.

Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin was asked whether the Met Police knew about the alleged harassment and what action was taken during a Met Police Authority meeting on Thursday (July 28).

He declined to answer the questions, which were put to him on behalf of the family of Mr Morgan, who was killed in Sydenham in 1987.

But Mr Godwin did say he has asked Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick to look into the alleged harassment as part of the wider investigation into phone hacking.

Speaking to News Shopper, Mr Morgan’s brother Alistair said: “We were disappointed that we couldn’t get any concrete answers. Now we’ll have to wait for answers.”

Private eye Mr Rees, aged 57, worked as an investigator for NotW from 1993 to 2000, and was reportedly re-hired by Andy Coulson, the newspaper’s former editor, in 2007.

Mr Morgan was found with an axe in his head in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham Road on March 10 in 1987.

Mr Rees, a business partner of Mr Morgan’s in a private detective firm, was charged with his murder in 2008 but the case against him collapsed in March this year.

A Guardian investigation claims NotW staff followed Mr Cook and his children and hacked into his and his wife’s voicemails.

NotW staff also tried to steal information from Mr Cook’s computer and ‘blagged’ his personal details from the police database, the Guardian claims.

When this was brought to the Met’s attention in 2003, officers informally spoke to then NotW editor Rebekah Brooks but took no formal action, the newspaper says.

Mr Cook, a former Met Police Detective Chief Superintendent, plans to sue the newspaper over the claims he was harassed and his private documents were hacked into.

Alistair Morgan, aged 62, from Islington, and his mother Isobel Hulsmann, aged 83, are calling for the government to launch a judicial enquiry into the investigation of Mr Morgan’s death.