Carol Morgan murder: Allen Morgan jailed for plotting to murder former wife more than 40 years ago

Allen Morgan, 74, was sentenced at Luton Crown Court on Monday.

The man had been having an affair with his current wife - Margaret Morgan, 75 - when his former wife Carol was found hacked to death at the grocery shop they both ran in Linslade, Bedfordshire, on 13 August 1981.

He was unanimously convicted by a jury of conspiracy to murder in June.

'Brutality' of Carol's murder

Mr Justice Martin Spencer said while sentencing Morgan on Monday: "The brutality of the killing shocked all those who attended the scene.

"Only one person knows the identity of the murderer and that is you, Mr Morgan. That is the secret which you have harboured for the last 40 years.

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"The law has now caught up with you, and you must pay due punishment for your part in this crime, but the murderer remains at large, if indeed he is still alive."

Officers originally believed Carol was the victim of a burglary gone wrong as her husband took his two stepchildren to the cinema in Luton to see a double bill on the day she was killed.

But a cold case investigation in 2018 uncovered a witness, who was 17 years old at the time, who linked Allen Morgan to the killing.

An unknown attacker struck around 7pm that day and Carol was killed inside the store room after she closed the shop.

The killer, who has never been identified, used a heavy weapon to hack at Carol, causing fatal injuries to her body and skull, the court was told.

'Truly wicked'

Pamela Smith, Carol's cousin, wrote in her victim impact statement that Morgan took step-children Dean and Jane to the north of England after the murder.

She said he "induced them to write letters to their grandparents saying that they had new lives now and did not want any contact," and added it was "just tragic" and "wicked of whoever made Dean and Jane write those letters to their grandparents".

Mr Spencer then said: "There's only one truly wicked person in this court Allen, and that is you."

The judge also read remarks from Morgan's step daughter Jane, who said: "It made me feel as though my life has been a lie, and the people I trusted most in the world may have been capable of a terrible betrayal of that trust."

Margaret Morgan - who left her husband and moved in with Allen Morgan after Carol's death - was also charged for conspiracy but was later acquitted.

-SKY NEWS