Jonathan Rees

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.

Murder of Daniel Morgan

In April 1987, Rees was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Daniel Morgan but was released without charge.

Between Morgan's death in 1987 and 2008, five police inquiries were conducted, at a significant cost. There were allegations of police corruption, drug trafficking and robbery.

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,

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,

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.

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.

Following in excess of three years on bail, Rees and others were told all charges related to Operation Kalmyk 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.

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 malicious prosecution case 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 successful appeal was heard in 2018. In 2019 Rees and the Vians were awarded damages of £414,000 after winning the case against the Metropolitan Police.