THE brother of murdered private eye Daniel Morgan says the News of the World’s (NotW) alleged interference in the police investigation is “deeply disturbing”.

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.

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.

Speaking to News Shopper, Mr Morgan’s brother Alistair said: “These claims the News of the World intervened in the investigation are deeply disturbing and sinister.”

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

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. An investigation by the Guardian newspaper 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, 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.