A JUDGE is to probe the notorious unsolved axe murder of a man from Gwent, according to reports.

Home secretary Theresa May is set to announce details of a Hillsborough-style review into the death of Cwmbran private detective Daniel Morgan, it was reported today.

The reports said the politician will outline details of an "independent panel review" which will have the same powers as the one that reviewed the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy and led to a new criminal investigation.

Campaigners hope the move would trigger a new police inquiry into the murder.

The Home Office yesterday would not be drawn on whether the report was accurate.

A spokeswoman for the department said: "Discussions are continuing with the family and we hope to make an announcement shortly."

Kirsteen Knight, partner of Daniel Morgan's brother Alistair Morgan, said: "All we can say at the moment is that the family is still talking to the Home Office."

Daniel Morgan, a former Croesyceiliog Grammar School pupil, was aged 37 and working as a private investigator when he was found dead in a London pub car park in 1987, an axe embedded in his skull.

His murder was never solved. No one has ever been convicted of his killing, and a court case over the death collapsed in 2011.

Mr Morgan's elderly mother Isobel Hulsmann told the Argus last year she wanted to see justice for her son before she died.

A report published by the Crown Prosecution Service last year pointed to the unreliability of critical witnesses in the police investigation.

It revealed four crates of evidence a month were lost before the case collapsed last year.

Alistair Morgan told the Argus at the time that the report contained no surprises and was pointless - accusing the home secretary of using the report to delay a decision on a judicial inquiry.