The prospective £2 million settlement would represent the largest payout in British policing history (Picture: Shutterstock/EPA/PA)

The Met Police has agreed to pay the family of a private detective whose murder remains unsolved 30 years later around £2m pounds, it has been reported.

Daniel Morgan was killed in 1987, aged 37, and his body was found in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south London, with an axe embedded in his head. 

An independent inquiry last year found subsequent investigations into Mr Morgan’s murder had been marred by corruption, as well as concealment and denial of failings to protect the reputation of the Metropolitan Police. 

It added the Met’s approach to tackling corruption today remains ‘not fit for purpose.’

Potentially one of the largest payouts in British policing history, the settlement would settle civil claims brought by Mr Morgan’s relatives over allegations of misfeasance in office and violations of the Human Rights Act on part of the Met.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley is understood to have met with the family and apologised for the failure of investigations in the years since Mr Morgan’s death.

However the Met chief is reported to have stopped short of admitting the extent of ongoing corruption within the force. 

Mr Morgan’s body was discovered outside a London pub in 1987 with an axe embedded in his head (Picture: Shutterstock/EPA/PA)

Sir Mark’s predecessor, Dame Cressida Dick, similarly refused to accept the findings of the independent inquiry last year. 

On the night of Morgan’s death, a watch was found to be stolen from his body in addition to notes he’d been writing earlier in the evening, though his wallet remained intact. 

Six people were arrested in connection with the slaying, though all were subsequently released without charge. 

This included Mr Morgan’s business partner, Jonathan Rees, who was alleged at an inquest into Morgan’s death to have told their company’s accountant he had arranged to have him killed. 

Further allegations surrounding the case included claims that Mr Morgan had been about to sell to the press a story about police corruption. 

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has met with the Morgan family to apologise for failed investigations but stopped short of admitting institutional corruption on the force (Picture: PA)

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His family has long said they suspected this may have been one of the factors that led to his murder. 

A total of five investigations into the case took place between 1988 and 2006, all of which failed to secure a conviction. 

Rees and other arrestees later won a case against the Met Police for malicious arrest in 2019, and were awarded £400,000 in damages.

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The size of the payout would reportedly make it one of the largest in British policing history.