'Cheating' husband and his mistress 'hired machete hitman to murder his shopkeeper wife 43 years ago inside their Leighton Buzzard corner shop'

A shopkeeper was murdered in a 'brutal' attack with an axe or machete in a plot hatched by her cheating husband and his married lover, a court heard today.

Carol Morgan, 36, was hacked down in her corner shop in 1981 after she was left on her own by husband Allen, who had taken her children to the cinema.

At the time, he was involved in a long-running 'passionate but forbidden and adulterous affair' with Margaret Spooner.

The prosecution say the pair hired an unknown killer to strike at Morgan's Food Fayre in Linslade, Bedfordshire, after realising divorcing their respective spouses would leave them in financial difficulties.

Opening the case today, prosecutor Pavlos Panayi KC said: 'The murder of Carol Morgan was no random attack. It was planned and paid for by the two defendants in the dock.'

Allen Morgan, now 73, who walks with a stick, and his second wife Margaret Morgan, 75, who used a hearing loop in court, both deny conspiracy to murder.

The defendants, who live together in Brighton, are said to have been having an affair for 14 months when Mrs Morgan was killed on August 13, 1981.

Allen met his lover on his grocery delivery rounds and they would have sex three times a week while her husband, Michael, was at work.

They allegedly wanted to move in together but were unable to because the Morgans had debts and Carol had 'brought the money in' from her share of the sale of the marital home after her first marriage ended, meaning Allen would not be able to support them.

'That was the problem. And that problem was solved by the death of Carol Morgan,' Mr Panayi said.

'After the death, Margaret left her husband and moved in with Allen Morgan. Soon after she divorced. They have been together ever since.'

On the night of the murder, Allen made the 'highly unusual' decision to take his wife's children to the cinema, despite 'not having a strong relationship' with them and never having taken them out without their mother before.

After the double bill, they got home at around 11pm and he found his wife's body in a pool of blood.

But Mr Panayi said: 'Carol had never been left alone without the children or her husband before.

'Allen had never taken the children out without her and it is suggested it is no coincidence that Allen Morgan chose that night to take the children out without their mother.

'Of all the nights a random burglar might come to steal, it was not just a coincidence that he chose the one and only night Carol Morgan had been left alone in the premises.'

Police later established there had been no forced entry, even though the shop was closed at the time Mrs Morgan is believed to have been attacked.

This suggested the door had been left unlocked or the killer or killers knocked on the door and got in when Mrs Morgan opened it.

'You may well conclude that there was one murderer and that was a man,' said Mr Panayi.

'We can't be sure but you don't need to answer this question to be able to decide on this indictment.'

The jury has been told that Mr Morgan's two children from his first marriage lived with their mother, while Carol had custody of her son, Dean, and daughter, Jane, after divorcing her first husband.

When Mrs Morgan's body was found, £400 cash had also been taken from a desk in the shop, £35 from the till and 1,400 cigarettes were missing.

Allen was quickly ruled out of any involvement because of his alibi of going to the cinema.

A witness who has since died allegedly said Carol had revealed her children didn't want to go to the cinema and she had not been asked to go along by her husband.

'Given the widely known fact of his affair, it suited his purpose to have a cast-iron alibi,' the prosecutor said.

Margaret's husband had discovered their affair and confronted Allen at the shop, the jury was told. He also gave his wife an 'ultimatum' to decide who she wanted to be with.

Mr Panayi said that days before the murder the defendants had 'reached something of a crossroads'.

The jury was told that they will also hear from a witness, Jane Bunting, who was 17 when she went to a pub with the defendants a few months before the murder.

They met her boyfriend, a known criminal called Danny Mayhew', and they 'asked him if he knew anyone who could kill Carol'.

'Jane's reaction was shock. She was appalled and left the pub,' Mr Panayi said.

'She kept silent about what she heard that night for the past 40 years. But she came forward in 2021 when she hears there was a reinvestigation.

'The prosecution say while Allen Morgan did most of the talking, the fact Margaret Morgan was there meant she was part of the plan.'

He added: 'We don't know who they eventually found to commit that murder and that man may never be brought to justice. But in Jane Bunting's evidence you'll hear first-hand what the defendants were planning to do to rid themselves of Carol Morgan.'

The trial continues.