By Indigo Jones

Copyright walesonline

ITV’s new true crime drama, The Hack, follows two major crimes that many of us may remember. The first story the series follows is the News of the World phone hacking scandal which took place in the early 00s, and alongside that they look at the unsolved Daniel Morgan murder from 1987. The murder case was reopened in the early 00s, after the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair’s acknowledging that the original police probe had been “compromised.” This is when Detective Superintendent David Cook stepped on the scene, to oversee the review. At the time, he described the murder as “one of the worst-kept secrets in south-east London,” claiming that “a whole cabal of people” knew who was involved. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter . So, who is former Met Police Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook? When discussing his character with STV, Robert Carlyle said: “He started off on the Glasgow Police force, worked his way up through the ranks in Glasgow… but he became a Detective Chief Superintendent in the Met. “When you join the story he has been asked to take charge of what was the fourth investigation into the Daniel Morgan murder. He takes care of the fourth and fifth investigation in fact. “Dave is, and I spoke to him several times, a good man, you know a very honest upright kinda guy. It was about fight for justice for the Morgan family, for him, because that family went through hell.” Daniel Morgan was a private detective from Monmouthshire , who was discovered with an axe embedded in his head in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in south London in 1987. At the time of his untimely death, Mr Morgan, along with his business partner Jonathan Rees, operated an investigation agency named Southern Investigations, which conducted extensive work for the News of the World tabloid newspaper. Alastair Morgan, Daniel’s brother and a longstanding critic of police mishandling, voiced faith in Cook’s leadership when he reopened the investigation in the early 00s. In 2006, Jennette Arnold, Metropolitan Police Authority member and Alastair’s London Assembly representative, described the unsolved case as “a reminder of the old police culture of corruption and unaccountability.” During the new investigation, covert listening devices were subsequently installed in Glenn Vian’s residence, and officers re-arrested Morgan’s former business partner Jonathon Rees, former Detective Sergeant Sidney Fillery, Glenn and Garry Vian, plus a builder called James Cook, all on suspicion of murder. A serving police constable was also detained for allegedly disclosing confidential information. Sidney Fillery was subject to a further arrest on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice. In 2009, the trial of Jonathan Rees, Sidney Fillery, the Vian brothers, and James Cook commenced at the Old Bailey. Nevertheless, the case rapidly started to collapse and in March 2011, the Director of Public Prosecutions at the time, Sir Keir Starmer, officially dropped the prosecution. The case never reached the point of establishing guilt or innocence regarding Daniel Morgan’s murder, becoming mired in complicated preliminary matters. In The Hack Eve Myles, plays the English journalist, television presenter and former police officer, Jacqui Hames. She was the wife of Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook, during the reopening of the 1987 Daniel Morgan murder case. Jacqui who was a presenter of the BBC programme Crimewatch from 1990 until 2007, was a close friend of the late presenter Jill Dando who was murdered after being fatally shot on the doorstep of her London home in 1999. In 2002, Dave Cook featured on Crimewatch to appeal for information on the unsolved Daniel Morgan case. Shortly after his appearance on the series, the family were placed under surveillance by News of the World. During the series, we see the couple’s marriage deteriorate as a result of the pressures of the case and the trauma that it dug up for Jacqui. Both Dave and Jacqui, as well as their two children were followed by reporters during the period. Jacqui later gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry in 2012, which investigated the News of the World phone hacking scandal. She wrote an article for CNN that same year, outlining her experience and the impact it had on her marriage to the DCS. She said: “When I was informed last year by police that my phone had been hacked by News of The World, I was very angry, but not altogether surprised. I was by then all too familiar with the way that tabloid newspapers thought nothing of invading my privacy, if they thought there might be a story in it.” Jacqui continued: “In 2002, Crimewatch was sent an email suggesting that I was having an affair. Strangers phoned my husband’s work, attempting to find out our home address and other personal and financial details. Two vans stationed outside our house followed my husband taking the kids to school . By this stage, we feared we were being stalked by the people responsible for the murder. “We took our house off the market, and warned our daughter’s headmistress of the risks of strangers hanging around the school. I became very distressed and anxious. The stress that we endured over the subsequent years contributed to the eventual breakdown of my marriage.” You can watch The Hack on ITV One at 9pm on Wednesday, October 1, or you can watch the whole boxset on ITV X now.