AN INDEPENDENT panel will investigate the unsolved murder of a Gwent private detective killed 26 years ago, it was announced today.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the year-long review would "shine a light" on the circumstances of 37-year-old Daniel Morgan’s murder, its background and the handling of the case since he was found with an axe in his head in a London pub car park in 1987.

With the support of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) the panel will look at police involvement and will consider the role played by corruption in protecting those responsible for the crime from being brought to justice. It will be chaired by Sir Stanley Burnton, a retired lord justice of the Court of Appeal.

Its members will also question connections between private investigators, police officers and journalists at the now defunct News of the World and other media and any alleged corruption involved in links between them.

Mrs May said: "The horrific murder of Daniel Morgan and subsequent investigations were dogged by serious allegations of police corruption.

"Several criminal investigations failed to bring those responsible to justice and this independent panel will leave no stone unturned to find out why.’’ Cwmbran man Mr Morgan was found in the car park of the Golden Lion pub, Sydenham, with an axe embedded in his skull. No one has ever been convicted of his killing, and a trial in connection with his death collapsed in 2011.

News of the panel probe was welcomed by Mr Morgan’s brother, Alastair, mother Isobel and sister Jane, who have long called for a further review of the case, following five failed police enquiries and three legal hearings estimated to have cost £30 million.

Alastair Morgan said: "Through almost three decades of public protests, meetings with police officers at the highest ranks, lobbying of politicians and pleas to the media, we have found ourselves lied to, fobbed off, bullied, degraded and let down time and time again.

"What we have been required to endure has been nothing less than mental torture. It has changed our relationship with this country forever.

"In the meanwhile, the allegations and evidence of serious corruption within the Metropolitan Police - extending to recent history and the highest ranks - remained unaddressed through five police investigations and a prosecution aborted after 18 months of pre-trial argument.

"Over most of this period, we witnessed a complete unwillingness by police and successive governments to face up to what was occurring, and ultimately a complete failure by police leadership to deal effectively with serious police criminality.

"We trust and hope that the panel, through its examination and publication of all relevant material and information, will assist the authorities to confront and acknowledge this failure for once and for all, so that we may at last be able to get on with our lives.’’