The murky story of an unsolved Sydenham murder from 30 years ago has been propelled back into the spotlight by a ten-part podcast series charting decades of failed investigations.

Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder delves into the murky depths of private eyes and police corruption in 1980s south-east London – and the story is sitting at the top of the iTunes chart.

37-year-old Daniel Morgan, of Thornton Heath, was found with an axe in his head in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in 1987.

Despite five investigations, nobody has ever stood trial for his murder.

His brother Alastair Morgan, who has spent decades trying to uncover the truth, is delighted that the series has gripped so many people and brought his brother’s story back into the public eye.

He said: “I always felt my brother’s case had never had the attention it warranted because of the wider implications.

“That was what disturbed me so much about it even years and years after the murder.

“It was really that anger and frustration that kept me going.

“The podcast allows the space to tell a complicated story without having to skip over important pieces - which any newspaper article has to do.”

“I’m quite sure there are depths to this story that haven’t yet begun to be touched.

“I was so disturbed by what has been going on – it has been the main preoccupation of my life for the last 30 years.”

Peter Jukes, the journalist behind the series, stumbled across Daniel’s story while he was live-tweeting and writing columns on the Leveson inquiry.

Having crowdfunded his time at the phone-hacking hearings, he started another campaign to create the podcast, managing to surpass his target and raise £10,000 within a few short weeks.

Mr Jukes spent two years doing research into Daniel’s death and the investigations that followed.

And he thinks it’s the allure of armchair detective work which made American crime podcast Serial so addictive that has drawn the public into Untold.

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He told News Shopper: “It is as much about the failures and the cover up as a whodunit.

“Most newspapers don’t want to tell this story because it’s too complicated.

“This is 30 years and a cast of hundreds.

“What was Daniel killed for? What was the motive?

“And how big was the corruption – that’s the question.”

Alastair Morgan hopes the decades he has spent painfully retracing his brother’s story culminate in someone being held accountable when the Daniel Morgan Independent panel set up by Theresa May publishes its findings this autumn.

The panel aims to shine a light on the circumstances of the murder and address questions of police involvement in the murder and police corruption during the investigation.

It will also address connections between private investigators, police officers and journalists at News of the World and other parts of the media and the ensuing allegations of corruption.

“I don’t know what will come after this, but the podcast is an important step in raising people’s awareness of the case, which I think has been seriously lacking as a result of the press relationship with the suspects.

“In my view this is the most serious police corruption case in London in the last 50 years.

“There is nothing more serious than this case but it has been successfully silenced.”