A pensioner and his lover hatched a plot to kill his wife more than 40 years ago after striking up a "forbidden" affair, a court has heard.
Allen Morgan, 73, and his second wife, Margaret, 75, had a "passionate but forbidden and adulterous love affair" before paying to have his wife Carol murdered, it's claimed.
Carol's body was found in the storeroom of their grocery store Morgan’s Food Fare, Luton Crown Court was told. The 36-year-old had been attacked with an "axe or heavy knife or machete" because Allen and Morgan wanted to be together, jurors heard. The killer has "never been identified" and no-one has ever been brought to justice for the "brutal attack".
Prosecutor Pavlos Panayi KC said Allen and Margaret began their affair more than a year before Carol's murder on August 13, 1981. Allen allegedly made grocery deliveries in the close-knit community of Linslade, Leighton Buzzard, and would visit Margaret three times a week for sex while her husband, Michael Spooner, was at work. When Michael found out about the affair he “gave her an ultimatum” and Carol also tried to mend their marriage, it is said. But not only did the fling continue, it "flourished", the court was told.
Mr Panayi told the court: "Had she not been murdered on the evening of August 13 1981 and had she lived today, Carol would be 80 years old. But she was murdered, of that there is no dispute in this case. She was killed in a brutal attack by someone who has never been identified to this day. Someone used an axe, or heavy knife or machete to hack into her body causing horrific injuries from which she died."
He added: "The prosecution will set out to prove that the two defendants wanted to be together but could not be together while Allen remained married to Carol Morgan. What is more, Allen could not divorce his wife. Carol Morgan had brought the money into the marriage and as a result of that fact and because of spiralling debts that they found themselves in, a divorce was out of the question.
"Margaret Morgan had considered leaving her husband so that she and Allen could make a life together. But even if she left, Allen would not be able to support them. That problem was solved by the death of Carol Morgan. Margaret left her husband and moved in with Allen Morgan after Carol’s death. They have been together ever since. "
Mr Panayi said: “The prosecution say these two individuals were involved in a passionate, but forbidden and adulterous love affair which was the background to a plan which they both hatched together in secret to arrange and pay for the murder of Allen’s wife Carol Morgan.”
He said that on the night of the killing, Allen took Carol’s two children from her previous marriage to see a double bill at the Odeon cinema in Dunstable Road, Luton. He said: “He took the children alone. This was a highly unusual event. He did not have a strong relationship with the children. Never before had he taken them out without their mother. During their absence Carol was alone in the shop. She closed the shop at 6pm. After she closed, an attacker or attackers entered the premises and struck.”
Mr Panayi said: "They did not kill Carol with their own hands, they are alleged to have arranged and paid for it to happen.” He added it was "not a random attack", and told jurors: “The killer is someone who has not been identified.”
The court also heard that Carol and Allen had taken out a £6,000 loan to help pay for the grocery story they ran together. As part of the loan, the couple had insurance which meant "if either Carol or Allen died, the loan would be automatically cancelled and repaid" by the policy.
The court was told Margaret "contrived" to arrange a meeting between Allen, herself and a woman named Jane Bunting, in the local Dolphin Pub a few months before the murder. Her boyfriend, Danny Mayhew, at the time was a "known criminal" and Allen is said to have asked Jane if "Danny knew anyone who could murder Carol Morgan", the jury heard.
Mr Panayi said: "Jane's reaction was shock and she was appalled and she left the pub. She has kept silent all these years but she came forward in 2021 when she learnt there was a reopening of the investigation. She said they tried to persuade her to help them to plan the murder of Carol Morgan."
Mr Panayi said that the "fact that Margaret had brought her there demonstrates that was was part of the plan". He told jurors: "The defendants together wanted Carol Morgan dead and had began planning the recruitment of a man who would kill her. That man may never be brought to justice but in Jane Bunting's evidence you will hear first-hand what the defendants were planning to rid themselves of Carol Morgan before that night." Prosecutors claim Carol closed the shop at around 6pm and was murdered around an hour later.
Mr Panayi said: "An attacker entered the premises and struck." He said there was no sign of a forced entry. The court was told Allen was "shocked" by the discovery of his wife's body and told detectives that cash and more than 1,400 cigarettes had been stolen from the shop. Forensics found a bloody footprint at the scene but no sign of a disturbance, jurors were told.
Mr Panayi said: "Mr Morgan came under immediate suspicion but was quickly ruled out as being the murderer because his alibi was confirmed by witnesses, not least Carol's two children, with who he had gone to the cinema with."
He said that Allen had never taken the children out alone in the entire 20 months they had lived in Linslade but had done so that he had a "cast iron alibi" on the night his wife was killed. He said: "We suggest that he had taken them to the cinema deliberately to leave the coast clear for an attacker who he knew in advance would be striking that night."
Mr Panayi said Allen could "not allow for Carol's two children, aged 12 and 14, to be there to witness the violent murder of their mother". Witnesses also claimed the children did not want to go to the cinema and Allen had not asked Carol to go to the cinema with them, the court heard.
He added: "If this was a burglary gone wrong, why was it necessary for him to kill Carol at all?? Why did he not just take was he could without resorting to murder?" Carol was hardly like to resist a man wielding an axe or a machete. Why kill her at all in the brutal way in which she met her death? The prosecution say this was a planned murder."
Allen and Margaret, of Stanstead Crescent, Woodingdean, Brighton, deny conspiracy to murder, with others unknown, between 1 January 1981 and 14th August 1981. The trial continues.