The husband was found guilty of conspiring to kill his wife

A husband accused of hiring a hitman to kill his ex-wife in 1981 has been found guilty.

Carol Morgan, 36, was killed in the shop she ran with her husband Allen Morgan in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.

Morgan, 73, of Stanstead Crescent, Woodingdean, Brighton, denies conspiracy to murder.

His current wife and then lover Margaret Morgan, 75, was found not guilty of the same charge by a jury at Luton Crown Court.

Morgan, 73, found her husband’s body in a shed when she returned from taking her two children, then aged 14 and 12, to the cinema in Luton.

Prosecutors say the movie theater trip gave Morgan an “ironclad” alibi when the hitmen killed Carol and robbed the store.

At the time, detectives believed that Carol had been the victim of a robbery gone wrong, but a cold case investigation in 2018 uncovered new witnesses who said Morgan wanted to find a hitman to kill her husband.

Jane Bunting, 60, told the jury she met Morgan at the Dolphin pub in Linslade, Leighton Buzzard, a few months before the murder.

Ms Bunting, who was 17 at the time, said she was “shocked” and “horrified” when Morgan asked if her ex-boyfriend knew who might have killed her.

She said: “He would say, ‘I hate Carol’, ‘I don’t want to marry her’, ‘I hope she dies’, ‘wouldn’t it be a good accident?’.

The killer, who has never been caught, used an ax or machete to attack Carol before escaping with £435 in cash and £1,400 worth of cigarettes.

The Morgans were spiraling in debt in 1981 and Carol had made plans to leave everything to her husband.

The shop also had a life insurance policy linked to it, the court heard.

Prosecutor Pavlos Panayi KC said: “The killer had some inside information before entering the premises.

“The obvious conclusion is that the killer was told by Allen Morgan where he was going to find the money, which was probably the payment for the murder.”

The jury heard that about a year before his wife’s death Morgan had begun an affair with Margaret Spooner, whom he later married.

Dean Morgan, Carol’s son, told the jury he was “really shocked” in 2019 when police told him his parents had been arrested on suspicion of murder. He said he was flying in from vacation.

The 57-year-old said he last spoke to his stepfather in 2023, when he was charged.

“They told me it was all mixed up and I said I didn’t know what was going on.

“The argument got heated and he dropped the phone on me. We haven’t spoken since.”

Det Supt Carl Foster, who led the cold case investigation, said: “Carol died in a frenzied and sustained attack, suffering horrific injuries that cruelly cut short her life.”

He said the case had to rely on “good old fashioned detective work” including tracking down evidence and re-examining witnesses.

He said the “change in people’s loyalties” over the past four decades was key to the case.

“Carol is effectively erased from all memory, including her two children, who have grown up without their mother, being raised by the man responsible for her death,” he said.

He said the force remains committed to finding who killed Carol.

When Allen Morgan’s guilty verdict was announced, he raised his head to the ceiling and looked up. When the words “not guilty” were read about Margaret Morgan, she shook her head.

When Mrs. Morgan left the courtroom, she did not look back at her husband.

When Morgan was told he would be held until his sentencing – rather than on bail as he had been during the trial – he looked annoyed.

Officers from Bedfordshire Police said it was a display of arrogance shown during the two-month trial.

Morgan has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced on July 31.