A man who was questioned about the murder of a shopkeeper in Leighton Buzzard over 40 years ago told a jury he was arrested after he and friend had fled an Indian restaurant without paying.
Danny Mayhew agreed he was “very surprised” when the police arrested him for the murder of Carol Morgan, who was brutally murder in her corner shop in Linslade, Leighton Buzzard on August 13, 1981.
Mr Mayhew, was giving evidence at the trial of pensioner couple Allen and Margaret Morgan who are accused of plotting to murder his then wife Carol.
The prosecution at Luton Crown Court allege Allen and Margaret Spooner, as she then was, had been in a year-long “passionate, but forbidden and adulterous love affair” and hatched a plan to murder the 36-year-old mother-of-two.
They are alleged to have paid an unknown killer, who used an axe or heavy knife or machete to hack into her body and skull before stealing cash.
Five weeks later, on September 25, he and a friend were picked up by officers for not paying the bill.
Mr Mayhew, who was cleared by the police, told Luton Crown Court on Wednesday, May 15, 2024: “They questioned me. I said I didn’t know nothing.”
He said he told the officers he had been watching the TV with 17-year-old Jane Bunting and her dad at their home that night. He did not know Carol or Allen Morgan, or Margaret Spooner.
Earlier Jane Bunting, now 60, told the jury that she went for a drink in the Dolphin pub in the town where Allen asked her: “What about Danny Mayhew you went out with? He’s a bit of a criminal.”
She said Allen went on: “Well he might know someone who could kill someone for me.”
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Ms Bunting said she would not ask Danny or anyone else and refused to pass on his phone number.
Mr Mayhew said before coming to Leighton Buzzard to stay with his sister in the summer of 1981 he had been living with his mum on a council estate in Hornsey, London.
Asked about any involvement with the police he said: “No real involvement apart from mucking about on the estate. The police would chase you about for making a noise or being in the wrong place. Sitting on the wrong walls. It went on all the time.”
On October 26, 1981, a month after being arrested for bilking at the Indian restaurant he and another man stole post office takings and he was remanded in custody. At the time he had been working cleaning lorries.
Allen Morgan, 73, and Margaret Morgan, now 75, of Stanstead Crescent, Woodingdean, Brighton, deny conspiracy to murder.
The jury heard a statement from Betty Thomas, a former friend of Carol Morgan from when she lived in Swindon.
Ms Thomas said: “I first met Carol Morgan at the Roundabout playgroup. She was going through a divorce from Richard Curtis.”
She said Carol had two previous boyfriends before she met Allen. “Carol managed very well on her own. Her children were very close to her.
“Carol was more or less financially independent.
“She met Allen Morgan through the Gingerbread Club. She had only known him a few week and he moved in with her. They decided to get married.
“I think Carole had her doubts a few weeks before the wedding. He said if he moved out it would be for good. Carol was afraid of losing him him for good.
“Allen was out of work all the time and Carol told me he was very strict with the children.”
She said she fell out with Carol when they had an argument about Allen failing to pick her daughter from swimming.
Case proceeding
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