Former Swindon man on trial after 'arranging wife's murder'

Allen Morgan lived in Swindon during the 1970s before moving to Bedfordshire with his partner Carol, who later became the victim of a brutal unsolved murder.

An Adver report from the time claims that Carol was “bludgeoned to death by raiders who escaped with several hundred pounds”.

Now, more than 40 years later, 73-year-old Allen and his 75-year-old wife Margaret Morgan are accused of conspiring to murder her. They both deny this charge.

"A passionate but forbidden love affair"

Pavlos Panayi KC, opening the prosecution case at Luton Crown Court on Wednesday, told jurors that on August 13, 1981, Carol - then aged 36 - was attacked and killed at the Wavy Line Food Fare newsagent she ran with husband Allen - then aged 31 - in Linslade near Leighton Buzzard.

The barrister said that 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”.

He added: “In the summer of 1981, Allen Morgan, was having an affair. His lover was the second defendant, who is now called Margaret Morgan.”

Allen Morgan (Image: PA)

Mr Panayi said that at the time, the affair had been going on for more than a year but Allen Morgan “couldn’t divorce his wife” because “Carol Morgan had brought the money into the marriage and as a result of that fact and because of spiralling debts, a divorce was financially out of the question.”

After Carol died, Margaret Spooner left her husband, moved in with Allen. They later married and have been together ever since.

The defendants, of Stanstead Crescent in Brighton, are “alleged to have arranged and paid for” the killing, the prosecutor said, adding that the defendants, of Stanstead Crescent in Brighton, were “engaged in a passionate but forbidden and adulterous love affair”.

Allen and Carol Morgan had both been married before when they met in the late 1970s, with Carol Morgan having sole custody of two children who lived with them in a flat above their corner shop while Allen Morgan’s children lived full-time with his ex-wife.

Carol Morgan (Image: PA)

The day of the murder

The Finch Crescent corner shop was bought in 1979 with Carol Morgan’s half of the sale of her previous marital home.

The prosecutor said that on the day Carol Morgan was killed, Allen Morgan took her two children to the cinema in Luton to see a double bill and they were not due back until almost 11pm, leaving her alone in the shop.

The barrister said Allen “didn’t have a strong relationship with his step-children”, adding: “He had never before taken them out without their mother, and after Carol closed the shop, “an attacker or attackers entered the premises and struck” at around 7pm, and Carol Morgan was killed inside the store room.

Mr Panayi said that Allen Morgan told police in a witness statement that he was “shocked by this discovery, 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 the family’s dog, who would “ordinarily… have the run of the premises”, had been shut in one of the bedrooms.

The prosecutor said Carol Morgan was “hardly likely to resist a man wielding a machete or axe”, adding: “The prosecution say the motivation of this crime was never just cigarettes or cash – this was a planned murder.”

A court sketch of Allen and Margaret Morgan (Image: PA)

New information comes to light

Mr Panayi said that a woman called Jane Bunting, who was 17 at the time and is now 60 years old, came forward to police in March 2021 after she heard police were reopening their investigation.

He said that Ms Bunting, now known as Jane Robinson, had a boyfriend at the time who was a known criminal called Danny Mayhew.

The barrister said that Margaret Morgan had brought Ms Bunting to a pub in the months before Carol Morgan’s death, and Allen Morgan was there and had speculated whether Ms Bunting knew anyone who could help him kill his wife.

The barrister said Ms Bunting was “shocked and appalled and she left the pub” but “kept silent about what she heard that night” until 2021.

He added: “The prosecution suggest her evidence does provide an additional support for the prosecution case that the defendants together wanted Carol Morgan dead and had begun to plan for the recruitment of a man to kill her.

“We do not know who they eventually found to commit the murder and that man may never be brought to justice.”

The trial continues.