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MAX VERSTAPPEN and Lewis Hamilton top the list of Formula One’s highest earners – as they prepare for another Championship battle.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton is preparing to make his Ferrari debut after a shock switch from Mercedes.

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Max Verstappen remains F1’s top dog – both on the track and earnings[/caption]

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Lewis Hamilton has made the switch to Ferrari for the upcoming season[/caption]

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It leaves George Russell as Mercedes’ top driver – and he has the salary to prove it[/caption]

Hamilton will be behind the wheel for the first time at the season opener in Melbourne on March 16.

The 40-year-old has penned a two-year deal with the Italian giants.

And it sees him earning a staggering £48million as he targets an eighth world crown.

Reigning champion Verstappen will pocket the most cash in 2025 – just as he did last year.

The Dutchman is given £52m-a-year by Red Bull, with his current deal running for a further three seasons.

In sharp contrast, Verstappen’s new teammate Liam Lawson, 23, will pocket just £800,000.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc bags £27m, over £20m less than new teammate Hamilton.

While George Russell, now the top dog at Mercedes, will earn a cool £12m.

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Lando Norris had a season to remember in 2024 with four wins and a second-placed overall finish.

His lucrative deal with McLaren runs until next year – and he currently bags £16m in annual salary.

At the other end of the spectrum, both Jack Doohan of Alpine and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar will take home £700,000 this year.

And Lance Stroll’s open contract with Aston Martin sees the 26-year-old earn £2.3m each season.

Verstappen’s dominance of the sport in recent years has seen him win four consecutive titles.

He won nine races last year – the least of any of the last four seasons.

Verstappen admitted: “Last year has been challenging at times.

“Of course, we had a lot of good moments, of course, also some tough moments.

“I hope that we can be, let’s say, a little bit more stable and a little bit more all-round throughout the season.”

Ex-F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone recently gave his opinion on whether Hamilton could challenge Verstappen in his Ferrari.

And the 94-year-old pulled no punches with his response.

Ecclestone told The Telegraph: “Hamilton won’t last [two years].

“Piero Ferrari, who has taken him there, still thinks they’ve done the right thing.

“I hope they have. I hope they haven’t just jumped in and end up wishing they hadn’t.”

Verstappen and Hamilton will join the rest of the F1 drivers for a special event on February 18.

For the first time in the sport’s history, all ten teams are coming together to unveil their new liveries.

The 2025 F1 1 season begins with a double-header, starting with the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne on March 16.

Just a week later, Shanghai will host the Chinese Grand Prix on March 23.

A MAN has been remanded in custody after he was charged with assault causing harm on an asylum seeker who died after being attacked in Dublin.

Jeffrey Bangu, 21, also faces three further raps for the production of a knife, an assault on a second man, and violent disorder.

He was before Dublin District Court this morning after 34-year-old Quham Babatunde was stabbed to death last weekend.

The offences Mr Bangu is alleged to have carried out occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning on Dublin’s South Anne Street.

Garda David Dolan of Pearse Street Garda Station gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution.

Gda Dolan said Mr Bangu was arrested for the purpose of charge on Monday night after 11.30pm.

He said the accused was cautioned in the usual manner before he was charged.

Mr Bangu was cautioned in the “usual manner” and made no reply to the four charges.

The garda told judge Aine Clancy that there would be “strenuous” objections to bail.

However defence barrister Kyle Talbot told the court that there would be no such application made on this occasion.

Judge Clancy said if there is one being made, the State would need at least 48 hours notice.

The accused was granted legal aid after the judge was told he is unemployed.

Mr Bangu was remanded in custody until February 25, when he will appear via video link for directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Mr Babatunde died in St James’ Hospital after being rushed there following the incident.

OTHER SUSPECTS

Two other suspects remain in custody, one up north and another at Pearse Street Garda Station in Dublin.

Mr Babatunde was an asylum seeker originally from Nigeria who had no other family here.

It is understood that he had been in Ireland for a number of years.

He had been living in Ballyogan IPAS accommodation centre, south of Dublin city, and had been among its first residents accommodated there.

Gardai are continuing to appeal for information.

APPEAL

A spokesperson said: “Any person who may have been present in the vicinity of South Anne Street/Duke Lane Upper, Dublin 2 between 2:45am and 3:30am this morning Saturday 15th February 2025.

“Gardai are particularly interested in speaking with anyone who may have information about any of these incidents or has any mobile phone footage recorded at the relevant locations, and any road users who may have camera footage (including dash-cam) and were travelling in the area or in the vicinity of Dawson Street and St Stephens Green at the time are asked to make this footage available to investigating GardaI.

“Anyone with information is asked to contact Pearse Street Garda Station on 01 666 9000, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.”

Supplied

THE best holiday destinations for savings this year have been revealed.

TravelSupermarket have done their research and have discovered the top 12 holiday spots that are cheaper this year compared to 2024.

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Larnaca in Cyprus is the holiday destination with the biggest savings[/caption]

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The beach has a palm tree-lined seafront and historical old town[/caption]

Larnaca, a city on the southeast coast of Cyprus, has emerged as the holiday destination with the biggest price drop.

According to TravelSupermarket, the holiday comparison website, prices of a holiday to Larnaca have fallen by £495 per person.

The average price in 2024 was £1,292.04 and in 2025 is £797.97 – a 38 per cent decrease.

It’s a beautiful destination for a break from the palm tree-lined seafront to the sandy beaches and historical old town.

Chris Webber, Head of Holidays and Deals at TravelSupermarket, explained: “We’re seeing remarkable shifts in pricing across multiple destinations.

“The Cyprus market has experienced notable fluctuations due to regional instability, leading to these substantial reductions.”

For anyone travelling to Larnaca, a Whizz Air flight takes just four hours and 45 minutes and offers a round trip for £54 per person.

It’s not just Larnaca that has dropped in price, there are lots of other destinations that have significantly changed and would make for a cheaper getaway than last year.

Holidays to Kefalonia in Greece have dropped by 28.11 per cent and have savings of £188 in 2025.

The island in the Ionian Sea is a front-runner when it comes to breaks with up to 14 hours of sunlight a day and top temperatures of 31C in summer.

The famous Myrtos Beach in Kefalonia tops the list of the best Greek beaches and ranks among the best in the world for more than a decade.

In the 2025 TripAdvisor Traveller’s Awards for ‘Best Beaches’ in the world, it came in at number ten.

The average price for a trip to Kefalonia in 2024 was an average of £668.88 and this year has dropped to £480.86.

Also offering big savings in 2025 is the coastal Turkish city of Izmir.

The holiday destination had an average price of £840.44 last year, but has dropped to £633.06 with savings of over £200 in 2025.

Izmir is famous for its Bazaar district and Keremalti Market as well as the blue mosque, and views of the Aegean Sea from the busy docks.

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Beautiful Kefalonia came in second with savings at just under £200[/caption]

Also on the list is Sardinia in Italy which had a price drop of just over 22 per cent with savings amounting to £155.65.

There were also two destinations in Thailand that had big savings according to TravelSupermarket.

Both Pattaya and Phuket made the top 12 list of biggest price drops.

Pattaya had savings of over £220 while Phuket came in with a price drop of 12.47 per cent in the last year.

Chris added: “Thailand’s increased accessibility, with British Airways returning to Bangkok after a four-year absence and Etihad boosting its flight frequency.

“This has created more competitive pricing across three fantastic Thai destinations, two of which feature in season three of HBO sensation, The White Lotus.”

Other honourable mentions to holiday destinations that have dropped in price go to Raa Atoll in the Maldives with savings of £224 and New York City where you can save £100.

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Holidays to Larnaca in Cyprus has dropped by almost £500 this year[/caption]

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Izmir in Turkey is famous for its Bazaar district and Keremalti Market[/caption]

It’s time to continue our College Basketball odds series with a South Carolina-LSU prediction and pick. Find out how to watch South Carolina LSU. The South Carolina Gamecocks enter the final 10 days of February knowing they won’t get many better chances to pick up their first SEC win of the college basketball season. In […]

The post South Carolina vs LSU prediction, pick, college basketball odds appeared first on ClutchPoints.

The 20th-ranked San Diego State Aztecs will try not to suffer an upset loss as they host the Fresno State Bulldogs as significant favorites. The Bulldogs will have trouble overcoming the Aztecs’ dominance over the past few years, losing ten consecutive games since 2020. San Diego State sits in third in the Mountain West with […]

The post Fresno State vs. San Diego State prediction, pick, college basketball odds appeared first on ClutchPoints.

THE Europa League last 16 is fast approaching, and Rangers can kick back and watch the playoffs as they’re already through.

After a stellar league phase performance, the Ibrox side finished in the top eight of the competition and secured a direct place in the last 16 proper.

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Rangers picked up four wins, two draws, and two losses in the league phase[/caption]

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Hamza Igamane of Rangers during their win over Union Saint-Gilloise[/caption]

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European performances have been a saviour for under pressure manager Philippe Clement[/caption]

The Gers opened their UEL campaign back in September with a solid 2-0 away win against Swedish side Malmo.

In October, Nice of France proved too tough when they ran out 4-1 winners at Ibrox, but another home tie soon after allowed the chance to bounce back as Bucharest were brushed aside by four goals to none.

Points were shared with one goal each at Olympiacos, then their last result against a French side was reserved as they bested OGC Nice 4-1 on their own turf.

Philippe Clement‘s side faced back-to-back English powerhouses as they secured a huge draw at home against Tottenham Hotspur before narrowly losing to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The league phase was rounded off and the last 16 secured last month with a 2-1 win at home against Union St. Gilloise.

Proving themselves to be up to the task in Europe and with the possibility of a favourable draw, Rangers will be hoping to match or possibly better their 2022 run to the UEL final where they lost on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt.

Here are the details of the draw which will reveal what lies ahead for Rangers.

When is the Europa League last 16 draw?

• The Europa League last 16 draw will take place on Friday, February 21.
• The subsequent rounds all the way to the final will also be drawn.
• The draw will be held at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland.
• The draw will take place at 12 noon UK time.

How can I watch the Europa League last 16 draw?

• The draw will be streamed live on Uefa.com.
• The draw will also be live on TNT Sports and subscribers can view it via the discovery+ app.

Who is already through to the last 16?

The teams that have secured a place in the last 16 already by finishing in the top eight of the league phase are:

• Lazio
• Athletic Bilbao
• Manchester United
• Tottenham Hotspur
• Eintracht Frankfurt
• Lyon
• Olympiacos
• Rangers

Who could Rangers face in the Europa League last 16?

Rangers have already been drawn to face the winner of either FC Twente and Bodo/Glimt or the winner of the Fenerbahce and Anderlecht tie.

The second legs of those knockout play-off round ties take place on Thursday night.

Rangers will be drawn to face the winner of one of the ties while Olympiacos will take on the other.

What were the scores from the first legs of the knockout play-off round?

• Ferencvaros 1-0 Viktoria Plzen
• Union Saint-Gilloise 0-2 Ajax
• Midtjylland 1-2 Real Sociedad
• Fenerbahce 3-0 Anderlecht
• FC Twente 2-1 Bodo/Glimt
• AZ Alkmaar 4-1 Galatasaray
• PAOK 1-2 FCSB
• Porto 1-1 Roma

Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page

TOMMY FLEETWOOD hit an incredible hole-in-one on a par four but was left wondering if it counted.

The current world No.10 is competing in the TMRW Golf League that has been set up by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

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Tommy Fleetwood was practising at the TMRW Golf League[/caption]

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He hit an incredible hole-in-one on the simulator[/caption]

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However, it did not count as it happened in practice[/caption]

Fleetwood, 34, was hit a brilliant shot on the driving simulator that saw the ball take a fortunate bounce off computer-generated rocks.

The ball landed on the green on the par four and miraculously rolled into the hole.

Fleetwood celebrated the shot and took to social media to ask about its legitimacy.

He wrote: “Add this to the hole-in-one debate.

“Golf simulator ace during practice. Does this count?”

Unfortunately for the Southport ace, it would not count as it only came during the warm-up and practice.

Fans were stunned by the shot as they debated the effort on social media.

One posted: “If only I could get that lucky of a bounce sim or no sim lol. Great shot!.”

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A second wrote: “Sorry, even simulator holes in one don’t count.”

A third commented: “In real life, that would ricochet off the rock like 40 yards, lmao.”

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He did pull off a great chip shot later in the competition[/caption]

A fourth said: “No buts it’s cool.”

Another added: “My definition has always been one on the scorecard, but I would bring this up every time someone asked me how many do I have.”

Fleetwood was able to console himself as he did pull off a brilliant shot later in the competition.

He chipped in from a good distance that was hailed as a “bit of magic”.

FICKLE Meghan Markle has to keep reinventing herself while clinging to her royal links – and she is shamelessly using her kids for clout, an expert claims.

The Duchess of Sussex announced a shock name change for her American Rivera Orchard lifestyle brand today.

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Meghan and Prince Harry during Invictus Games in Vancouver last week[/caption]

Announced less than a year ago, the project is now called As Ever, ahead of its official launch to tie in with new Netflix cookery show With Love, Meghan next month.

In her Instagram announcement, the duchess, 43, said the change meant she was no longer “limited” to selling products from the part of Santa Barbara where she grew up.

But she failed to touch on the trademark issues that have dogged the launch, with officials saying she cannot have exclusive rights to “American Rivera” going forward.

Royal author Hugo Vickers told The Sun: “I think there’s a lot of sort of jumping in and then rethinking.”

He said this reflects much of the ventures Meghan and Harry, 40, have undertaken since stepping down as working royals in 2020.

“It’s always this sort of rebranding of themselves, and reinventing themselves so that they’re always in view of the public…” he explained. 

“It does all seem a little bit…how do you put it? Incredibly commercial. It’s obviously aimed at marketing. But from what I read, all this has happened quite suddenly. 

“There’s lots of applications being put in and things being registered, and so forth. I think it’s all a little bit sort of done on the hoof, to be honest.”

Today’s rebrand announcement video – filmed presumably in the Sussexes’ garden in Montecito – features Harry’s voice playfully telling his wife at the start “it’s recording” before she giggles.

Mr Vickers, pointing out the duke also featured briefly in the brand’s introductory video, said he’s still essentially the main draw.

“I was going to say ‘product placing’, but ‘Meghan placing’, I mean, we watch her because she’s married to Prince Harry,” he said. 

“That’s the reason we watch her, and really the only reason, to be quite honest.”

He added: “I rather wonder what will happen if ever the day comes when she doesn’t need him. But that’s all in the future.

“I’ve said this a million times, but that is why we watch them – because he is Prince Harry…he’s put her on the map. 

“She was quite well known before she got involved with him. But she’s extremely well known as a result of having married Prince Harry. That’s what it’s all about.”

The As Ever website also features a rare photo of their daughter Lilibet, and Mr Vickers said this, unfortunately, feels like a commercial decision as well. 

“I’m personally rather against people using their children for advertising purposes, especially when their children are officially members of the Royal Family,” he said. 

“They’ve been given princely titles. So, once again it’s exploiting the royal side, and also…we don’t often see the children. In fact, do we ever see them full on?

“We see the back of the head, occasionally, or we see a hand, or we see something. It’s all rather tantalising. 

“It’s been like that right since the start. So I suppose that when they do appear it’s like gosh, there they are, they exist.”

Meghan mentions her now-defunct lifestyle blog the Tig – and those who read it in her years before she became a royal – in her Instagram post.

Asked if she would prefer to have found another way to reach her current level of fame, without having had to join and leave the Firm, Mr Vickers was not so sure.

He said: “I think the royal issues were always a part of it, part of her plan. 

“I’ve always thought that what she’s seeking is a kind of global recognition which she certainly got based on the fact that she married Prince Harry.”

He said she had a decent platform before as a Hollywood actress, particularly due to the popularity of legal drama Suits, and had been involved in humanitarian efforts prior to being a royal.

But that next step has “ramped it all up”, he said, adding that it’s a shame Meghan and Harry couldn’t have seen the value working within the Firm to get their messages across. 

“But she’s moving forward into an area in which she’s probably much more comfortable than she ever was in royal life,” Mr Vickers continued. “I think she’s fairly unstoppable.”

He went on to say: “As anyone knows in public life, what you have to do is just keep going, and she’s certainly good at that. 

“I mean nothing stops her, does it? If something goes wrong, she rebrands it and has another try. Well, you know, that’s commendable, actually – that’s what she should do.”

A rep for the Sussexes declined to comment when approached by the Sun.

A MAN whose sister’s murder remains unsolved 50 years after her death has blasted their wait for justice.

Marian Beattie was on a night out at a charity dance with her best friend, Nuala Wilson, and her brother Isadore, on March 30, 1973 in Aughnacloy, Co. Tyrone.

Collects

She was just 18 when she was last seen by her brother leaving the venue with a boy she had been dancing with and promised to be back at their van by 2am.

But she never returned and her body was found hours later at the bottom of a quarry in just her underwear.

Isadore recalled: “We drove straight to the quarry and the strange thing about it is that when we pulled up to the quarry, we just drove straight to where she was within 50ft, 60ft. . . I could see her lying on the bottom of the quarry.

“My first reaction was to run down and get her and the two policemen said, ‘No don’t, we cannot allow you to go there and get her.’”

He added: “Just looking at her you knew it wasn’t an accident because accidents don’t happen like that.”

It emerged she had been hit with a piece of metal.

Isadore told TG4 documentary Maru Inar Measc: “People will tell you time is a great healer. 50 years later it feels no different. When you take your younger sister away to enjoy herself and bring her home in a coffin, it’s not a good feeling.

“To watch your own mother and father almost collapse in grief, that was one of the most hardest things that has ever happened to me in my life. Gut-wrenching and heartbreaking at the same time.”

The case then went unsolved for decades, until the family convinced the PSNI in 2013 to reopen it, all while they carried out their own investigations. This discovered that evidence was missing.

In 2022, a report was sent to the Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson which identified five possible suspects.

Isadore added: “If somebody can tell me that it takes 50 years to get justice for your sister, for your daughter, there’s something wrong with the system.”

Maru Inar Measc airs on Wednesday at 9.30pm on TG4.

Social Media Collect

FOR 42 years, the vicious murder of mum-of-two Carol Morgan remained a chilling mystery.

On August 13, 1981, while her children were watching a film at the local cinema, Carol, 37, was bludgeoned to death in the storeroom of her corner shop in Linslade, Bedfordshire.

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For 42 years, Allen Morgan roamed freely after arranging the brutal murder of his wife[/caption]

Fairley & Simmons

Carol Morgan was savagely bludgeoned at the couple’s corner shop in 1981[/caption]

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Morgan and his new wife Margaret Spooner were charged with conspiracy to murder[/caption]

Her skull was shattered by 10 to 15 blows in an attack so savage that detectives would later describe it as “overkill.”

For four decades the mystery of her brutal murder remained unsolved, haunting the quiet community and baffling cops.

Now a new ITV documentary, The Real Unforgotten, follows investigators as they reopen the case and work to find out the truth behind Carol’s murder.

Detective Constable Denise Brown, who reviewed the shocking images of Carol’s body, described the gruesome scene in the documentary.

She said: “You can see huge lacerations. You can see the skull, and the second one shows the tissue that’s exposed as a result of the attack.

“What you don’t see is how Carol had a load of hair in her hand from where she had obviously put her hand to her head to protect her head.”

The brutality of the murder was undeniable. Carol’s finger was slashed in a defensive wound, her cheek was grotesquely damaged, and her skull was exposed.

While cops hunted an opportunist robber, the real mastermind stood right before detectives – her ‘grieving’ husband, Allen Morgan.

Morgan had a cast iron alibi, claiming he discovered his wife’s bloodied body after returning from the cinema with their children.

He immediately raised the alarm, reporting that £500 in cash and £120 worth of cigarettes were missing from the shop.

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Morgan played the role of a grieving widower and appealed for information on the killer[/caption]

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He told cops he found his wife in the storeroom of their corner shop[/caption]

He played the role of the devastated husband, pleading with the killer’s friends and family to stop shielding them.

“Well, if he’s done it once, he’s going to do it again, and it was terrible,” he said in a TV interview at the time.

“You’ve got no idea what it was like when I walked in. No idea at all what she looked like. I just hope they don’t shield him too long or they don’t shield him at all.”

‘Worst shock’

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Police initially believed Carol’s murder was a result of a robbery[/caption]

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Appeals were launched for a man with “piggy nostrils”[/caption]

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Detectives Carl Foster and Denise Woods worked on the case when it was reopened[/caption]

Police initially believed the motive was robbery.

They focused their investigation on a man seen leaving the shop around 7pm, described as having “piggy-style nostrils.”

A composite image of the suspect was circulated widely and detectives pursued leads related to a dark green estate car seen nearby.

They questioned thousands of people and examined over 30,000 vehicles. But despite their efforts, the mysterious man and the car were never found.

Meanwhile, Carol’s family struggled to understand why someone would murder such a kind and gentle woman.

Her niece, Julie Walsh, said in the film: “Hearing about my auntie’s murder was the worst shock in the world. Everything just stops, and you think, ‘well, that can’t have happened.’

“Why would someone murder a defenceless, innocent woman working in her shop? It’s never made any sense to me.

“Why do something so grotesque… so brutal to anyone for a small reward as it seems?”

With the police at the time laser-focused on catching the man in the composite, other leads were disregarded.

Senior investigator Carl Foster, who opened the case in 2018 and eventually successfully cracked it says in the documentary: “This male was hugely significant to the original investigation because he was the main line of inquiry that was pursued.

“But in pursuing that, they were absolutely focused on catching the murderer at the expense of other lines of inquiry or other hypotheses.”

Bedfordshire Police

Bedfordshire Police

The store was owned by Carol and Allen Morgan[/caption]

Secret lover

While police chased the wrong lead, Allen Morgan continued to play the grieving widower. But behind closed doors, he was hiding a dark secret.

He was having a passionate affair with Margaret Spooner, a married woman who was found in his bed the morning after Carol’s murder.

As detectives would later discover, Morgan and Margaret had been lovers for months, meeting every night in the days leading up to the murder.

News Group Newspapers Ltd

Morgan on holiday with Margaret shortly after Carol’s death[/caption]

News Group Newspapers Ltd

For years, he protested his innocence amid pleas to catch the killer[/caption]

Soon after the horrific discovery, Margaret’s friend, Sheila Forrest, remembered Morgan whispering to Margaret: “It won’t be long now, darling… I’m sorry I’ve had to tell them all about us.”

In a witness statement in 1981, she told cops: “His grief seemed unreal… I was feeling physically sick and frightened at Morgan’s words to Margaret.”

Margaret’s husband came forward to give police a witness statement, telling them: “I do anticipate that now that Mrs Morgan has died, my wife and Allen will live together.”

That’s exactly what happened – six weeks after Carol’s death, Margaret moved into the family home, living with Morgan and Carol’s children.

Rumours swirled in the community, forcing Morgan to sell the shop and move away. He later admitted: “There are quite a few other people who won’t shop here because they are afraid to be caught up in the gossip.”

But it wasn’t just the affair that raised eyebrows. Investigators discovered the couple’s finances were in ruins, with the shop they co-owned failing and cheques bouncing.

Chillingly, there was also an insurance policy that would pay out upon Carol’s death.

Lies and inconsistencies

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The investigators sieved through countless documents in a bid to solve the case[/caption]

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Morgan and Margaret were arrested for the crime in 2019[/caption]

When Carl took charge of the case, he quickly realised the original investigation had been flawed and forensic evidence had been destroyed.

Cracking the case was going to be a daunting task.

Carl and his team revisited over 500 witness statements and 6,000 documents.

Armed with ghastly pictures from the scene, Carl and his team worked tirelessly with forensic experts and medical teams to get a better sense of how and why Carol was killed.

Investigators came to the conclusion that they had to look more closely at Morgan.

A few months after Carol’s death, Morgan granted an interview in the media where he claimed that his marriage was “as good as over”.

He also said he was not going to “mourn forever” and showed no remorse for moving on too soon with Margaret.

Hitting back in the film, Carl says: “If you cared one jot about Carol, then surely any normal human being under those circumstances would not be flaunting their life in that way and disrespecting Carol’s memory quite as openly as Allen seemed to.”

In November 2019, 38 years after Carol’s murder, Carl and his team arrested Allen, then aged 69 and Margaret, 70 at the time.

It was the first time that an arrest had ever been made in the puzzling case.

Police launched another appeal for information and went around speaking to neighbours again, in the hopes of gathering new information.

During questioning, police noted several inconsistencies and lies in the pair’s accounts of what happened.

One of the most significant was when he told police that there was no machete in his shop.

From interviews, police had already established that there was and several people had seen Morgan using one.

Carl believes that was the item that was used to murder Carol. Allen also lied about his financial situation with Carol, giving police more reason to suspect that he was involved in her murder. 

During questioning, it was revealed that Allen had a previous conviction for insurance fraud.

Before Carol, he was previously in a volatile marriage with a woman called Sandra, who he had two kids with.

He became violent towards her and even punched her in the stomach when she told him she was pregnant, which may have contributed to the loss of one of their twins.

Sandra gave a statement in 1981 detailing a history of brutal domestic violence. His own kids also revealed disturbing details of brutal punishments and a history of physical abuse.

After the initial interviews, the couple were released on bail pending further investigations as police did not have enough evidence to charge them. 

Bombshell evidence

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The pair were arrested by cops on multiple times before a breakthrough witness[/caption]

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Jane Bunting’s testimony was the smoking gun cops needed[/caption]

Just as the investigation stalled and frustration began to set in, a bombshell witness came forward.

In 1981, Jane Bunting was a wayward child who had been expelled from, school. Margaret was then assigned as her tutor.

After developing a close relationship, Jane was invited to a pub to meet up with Margaret and Morgan three months before the murder.

During their conversation, the couple discussed various ways Carol could die, including in a car accident.

The conversation left Jane stunned but Margaret tried to assure her it was just a joke.

After Carol was killed, Margaret warned the 17-year-old not to tell anyone about the discussion at the pub. Jane’s incredible testimony was the smoking gun detectives desperately needed.

Armed with this, they once again arrested Morgan and Margaret and brought them into the Kempston Police Station for questioning.

During the interrogations, they answered “no comment” to every question.

Although the Crown Prosecution Service felt they had a significant amount of evidence on the couple, they wanted to make sure they could prove their guilt without a reasonable doubt.

The couple was released for a second time. During their trips to and from the station, cops secretly recorded their conversations, including one instance when Morgan told Margaret: “I don’t want to say anything cos they might have…” – stopping when he realised he might incriminate himself.

Eventually, the decision was made to charge the pair for hiring a hitman to murder Carol.

Shan Saunders, from the CPS, whose decision it was to charge the pair said in the documentary: “If you take out the robbery hypothesis and look at it, who else had a motive to kill her?”

In April 2024, the couple’s trial began at the Luton Crown Court. Dean Morgan, Carol’s son, bravely gave testimony while Jane Bunting’s evidence revealed the cold-hearted plot to kill Carol.

In June 2024, the jury reached a decision and found Morgan guilty of conspiracy to murder. However, Margaret was acquitted of the charge. 

On 29th July, Allen was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 22 years.

Sentencing, Mr Justice Spencer told Morgan he was a “wicked” person. 

But while Allen Morgan plotted the murder, the accomplice who carried out the horrific attack has never been found.

The Real Unforgotten airs on 18th February at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX

Fairley & Simmons

Morgan was sentenced to life in prison for the crime in 2024[/caption]

PA

Margaret, however, was acquitted of the same charge[/caption]