THE METROPOLITAN Police are tackling a £4million compensation claim from five men who were arrested in a 2008 probe into the murder of Gwent private eye Daniel Morgan.

Following a report in The Mail On Sunday on August 30, the Argus can confirm that the Metropolitan Police have been served with the claims brought by the five men.

They were arrested in 2008 in connection with Mr Morgan’s death, but the case against two was discharged after a string of supergrasses were discredited.

The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case against the remaining three in 2011.

A police spokesman said: “The Metropolitan Police Service is cooperating fully with the independent panel, established by the home secretary in May 2013 to look at the police investigation into Mr Morgan’s murder.

“Their work is ongoing.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further until their work is complete.”

Mr Morgan, 37, of Cwmbran, was killed in south- east London in March 1987.

Despite five police investigations, no one has been successfully prosecuted for the murder.

The Metropolitan Police previously acknowledged its own “repeated failure”

to tackle corruption within the force which helped protect those responsible for the murder from being brought to justice.

Speaking to the Argus in March, the family of Mr Morgan feared that documents which were destroyed might have held clues into his death.

This followed details which emerged that documents held by the Metropolitan Police, which contained the findings of an undercover probe into criminal behaviour by police officers, were shredded.

Some of the papers were believed to have been from secret operation Othona, an anti-corruption inquiry.

There is an ongoing review to try to establish the circumstances of Mr Morgan’s death. The review was announced by home secretary Theresa May in May 2013.

Scotland Yard previously admitted corruption was a “debilitating factor”’ in the first investigation.

Mr Morgan’s brother Alastair Morgan said he did not want to comment.