'Cheating' husband and his mistress 'hired machete hitman to murder his ... trends now
A shopkeeper was murdered in a 'brutal' attack with an axe or machete in a plot hatched by her cheating husband and his married lover, a court heard today.
Carol Morgan, 36, was hacked down in her corner shop in 1981 after she was left on her own by husband Allen, who had taken her children to the cinema.
At the time, he was involved in a long-running 'passionate but forbidden and adulterous affair' with Margaret Spooner.
The prosecution say the pair hired an unknown killer to strike at Morgan's Food Fayre in Linslade, Bedfordshire, after realising divorcing their respective spouses would leave them in financial difficulties.
Opening the case today, prosecutor Pavlos Panayi KC said: 'The murder of Carol Morgan was no random attack. It was planned and paid for by the two defendants in the dock.'
Carol Morgan, 36, was hacked down in her corner shop in 1981 after she was left on her own by husband Allen, who had taken her children to the cinema
Allen Morgan and his wife Margaret Morgan arriving at court. The prosecution say the pair hired an unknown killer to strike at Morgan's Food Fayre in Linslade, Bedfordshire, after realising divorcing their respective spouses would leave them in financial difficulties
The shop in Linslade, Leighton Buzzard, open today 2024, more than 40 years after Carol Morgan died after being repeatedly struck with a sharp and heavy weapon at her shop
Allen Morgan, now 73, who walks with a stick, and his second wife Margaret Morgan, 75, who used a hearing loop in court, both deny conspiracy to murder.
The defendants, who live together in Brighton, are said to have been having an affair for 14 months when Mrs Morgan was killed on August 13, 1981.
Allen met his lover on his grocery delivery rounds and they would have sex three times a week while her husband, Michael, was at work.
They allegedly wanted to move in together but were unable to because the Morgans had debts and Carol had 'brought the money in' from her share of the sale of the marital home after her first marriage ended, meaning Allen would not be able to support them.
'That was the problem. And that problem was solved by the death of Carol Morgan,' Mr Panayi said.
'After the death, Margaret left her husband and moved in with Allen Morgan. Soon after she divorced. They have been together ever since.'
On the night of the murder, Allen made the 'highly unusual' decision to take his wife's children to the cinema, despite 'not having a strong relationship' with them and never having taken them out without their mother before.
After the double bill, they got home at around 11pm and he found his wife's body in a pool of blood.
