Jonathan Rees is a British private investigator, and former partner of murdered private investigator Daniel Morgan.

Early life and career

Born in September 1954 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, Rees left school and joined the Merchant Navy, then became an investigator. In 1984, with partner Daniel Morgan, he set up a detective agency, Southern Investigations, in Thornton Heath, Surrey.Hugh Muir and Duncan Campbel
"DNA may solve killing that shamed Met"
''The Guardian'', 20 November 2006, accessed 7 July 2011

Murder of Daniel Morgan

In April 1987, Rees was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Daniel Morgan but was released without charge.Sandra Lavill
"Daniel Morgan Axe Murder Case: timeline"
guardian.co.uk website, 11 March 2011, accessed 7 July 2011 Between Morgan's death in 1987 and 2008, five police inquiries were conducted, at a cost to date of £140 million. There were allegations of police corruption, drug trafficking and robbery.Martin Brun
"Ex-Detective Held Over Axe Murder"
Sky.com News Archive, 22 April 2008, accessed 7 July 2011 After an inquiry by Hampshire police in 1988, Rees and another man were charged with murder, but the case did not reach trial when charges were dropped because of a lack of evidence, and the Hampshire inquiry's 1989 report to the Police Complaints Authority found "no evidence whatsoever of police involvement in the murder". In 1998, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Roy Clark conducted a third, secret, inquiry into the murder during which Southern Investigations' office was bugged by a known paid police informer. In December 2000, Rees was found guilty of conspiring to plant cocaine on an innocent woman in order to discredit her in a child custody battle and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for attempting to pervert the course of justice. After the

Metropolitan Police Commissioner The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Sir Mark Rowley was appointed to the post on 8 July 2022 after Dame Cressida Dick announced her resignation in February. The rank of Commission ...

Sir Ian Blair Ian Warwick Blair, Baron Blair of Boughton, (born 19 March 1953) is a British retired policeman who held the position of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2005 to 2008 and was the highest-ranking officer within the Metropolitan Poli ...

declared that the first police inquiry—that had included Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery, stationed at Catford police station—was "compromised", a secret fifth inquiry, began. Later, police arrested Jonathan Rees and several others on suspicion of murder, along with a serving police officer suspected of leaking information. In 2009 the trial began at the Old Bailey. In March 2011 the Director of Public Prosecutions abandoned the case and the three accused were acquitted, including Rees.Nick Davies and Vikram Dod
"Murder trial collapse exposes News of the World links to police corruption"
guardian.co.uk website, 11 March 2011, accessed 7 July 2011 The case involved some of the longest legal arguments submitted in a trial in the English criminal courts. Nicholas Hilliard QC, for the prosecution, said that defence lawyers might not be able to examine all the documents in the case (750,000 pages dating back over 24 years) in order to ensure a fair trial.

2011 News of the World scandal

After the collapse of the Old Bailey trial in March 2011 it was revealed that Rees had earned £150,000 a year from the ''News of the World'' for supplying illegally obtained information about people in the public eye.Nick Davie
"Jonathan Rees’ empire of corruption"
''The Guardian'', 12 March 2011, accessed 9 July 2011 After Rees completed his prison sentence for perverting the course of justice, he was hired again by the ''News of the World'', at the time edited by

Andy Coulson Andrew Edward Coulson (born 21 January 1968) is an English journalist and political strategist. Coulson was the editor of the ''News of the World'' from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's repo ...

. Rees worked regularly on behalf of the '' Daily Mirror'' and the '' Sunday Mirror'', as well as the ''News of the World'', investigating the bank accounts of the royal family, and obtaining information on other public figures. He had a network of contacts with corrupt police officers, who obtained confidential records for him. He was routinely able to obtain confidential data from bank accounts, telephone records, car registration details and computers. He was also alleged to have commissioned burglaries on behalf of journalists. In June 2011 ''The Guardian'' newspaper, calling for a public inquiry into the ''News of the World'' phone-hacking scandal, focused its criticism of the parent company News Corporation's handling of accusations of criminality within the organisation on the newspaper's use of Rees's investigative services. Rees's activities were described as a "devastating pattern of illegal behaviour", and far exceeding those of any of the other investigators commissioned by News Corporation who used illicit means to target prominent figures. They included unauthorised access to computer data and bank accounts, corruption of police officers and alleged commissioning of burglaries. ''The Guardian'' queried why the Metropolitan Police had chosen to exclude a very large quantity of Rees material from investigation by its Operation Weeting inquiry into phone hacking.Editorial: "Phone-hacking scandal: Time for a public inquiry"
''The Guardian'', 10 June 2011, accessed 9 July 2011 Following in excess of three years on bail, Rees and others were told all charges related to

Operation Kalmyk In February 2012, during evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the British press, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers mentioned the existence of Operation Kalmyk, a new investigation relat ...

and Operation Tuleta would be "no further actioned". This, in turn, focused attention on the credibility of Ian Hurst (Martin Ingram). ''The Guardian'' had published extensively on Rees's involvement with corrupt police officers and the procurement of confidential information for what ''Guardian'' journalist Nick Davies described as Rees's one "golden source" of income in particular, commissions from the ''News of the World''. Davies has reported at length on what he described as the "empire of corruption" that Rees and Sid Fillery built in the years following Daniel Morgan's murder, after Fillery replaced Morgan as Rees's partner.

Malicious prosecution case

In October 2014 Rees, along with others charged in 2009 and acquitted in 2011 (former Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery, brothers Glenn and Garry Vian, and builder James Cook) launched a £4 million lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police. In February 2017 the High Court ruled on the lawsuit. Rees and the Vians lost their claim, but Fillery was awarded £25,000 in interim damages with a higher amount to be determined later. The Rees and Vians appeal was heard in 2018. In 2019 Rees and the Vians were awarded damages of £414,000 after winning their

malicious prosecution Malicious prosecution is a common law intentional tort. Like the tort of abuse of process, its elements include (1) intentionally (and maliciously) instituting and pursuing (or causing to be instituted or pursued) a legal action ( civil or crimina ...

case against the Metropolitan Police.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Jonathan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People associated with the News International phone hacking scandal Private detectives and investigators People from Doncaster

Early life and career

Murder of Daniel Morgan

2011 News of the World scandal

Malicious prosecution case

See also

References