THE brother of murdered Cwmbran private detective Daniel Morgan said a report highlighting failings in the investigation into his death contained "no surprises" and had been "utterly pointless."

Alastair Morgan also claimed the report, published on Monday 14 months after it was ordered, had been used an excuse to delay a decision on a judicial inquiry, which is still awaited.

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

His murder was ever solved. Mr Morgan's former business partner Jonathan Rees and Rees' brothers-in-law Garry Vian and Glenn Vian were accused of the murder but were cleared of any wrongdoing last year.

James Cook, accused of murder, and former detective sergeant Sid Fillery, charged with perverting justice - were also discharged after supergrass witnesses were discredited.

The report, issued by the Crown Prosecution Service, pointed to the unreliability of critical witnesses and revealed that police had lost four crates of evidence a month before the case collapsed last year, and so this could not be disclosed to the defence.

Mr Morgan said he and his family already knew why the prosecution case collapsed - something he described as a "slow motion train crash".

"(Home Secretary) Theresa May has been using the report as an excuse not to respond to our calls for a judicial inquiry," Mr Morgan told the Argus.

"It was so utterly pointless, frustrating and very annoying, particularly for my mother (Isobel Hulsman) who is now 84-years-old," he said.

Three months ago, Mrs Hulsman, who has campaigned relentlessly to discover the truth behind her son's death, told the Argus she feared she never find out who killed him.

Mr Morgan said the report was also "astonishingly thin" given that it had taken 14 months to produce.

The family met Metropolitan Police and CPS representatives ahead of the report's publication, and Mr Morgan said: "I expressed a lot of anger over their failings and the fact they have put my family through 25 years of hell." He also claimed allegations of serious corruption were not dealt with.

Review 'not meant to uncover corruption' - police

METROPOLITAN Police Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick and Alison Saunders, Chief Crown Prosecutor for London, said the purpose of the review had been to identify potential good practice and learning for police and prosecutors in future cases.

In a joint statement, they said: "What the review was not, was an investigation into allegations of corruption. Nor was it intended to serve the purpose of an investigation for police disciplinary purposes."

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Hold a full inquiry now

WE HAVE enormous sympathy for the family of Daniel Morgan who have waited in vain for a quarter of a century to see his killers brought to justice.

It is 25 years since the private detective, who grew up in Cwmbran, was found dead in a London pub car park with an axe in his head.

Since then there have been court cases and inquiries costing an estimated £30 million but no convictions.

It has even formed a part of the current Leveson Inquiry.

At the heart of the years of wasted investigations and inquiries is almost certainly serious police corruption.

Mr Morgan is believed to have uncovered drug-related corruption in the Met shortly before his death.

Since then tracks have been covered, informants discredited and ranks closed.

Mr Morgan’s family remain committed to winning justice for him but have become increasingly angry and bitter at the lack of progress.

The justice system has let them down. They deserve better.

Today they renew their call for a full judicial inquiry into Daniel Morgan’s murder and the corruption that surrounds it and continues to protect his killers.

It is a call we support. And it is a request the government should grant.

It is the least that Mr Morgan’s family should expect after 25 years of being let down by the authorities.