Gunman gets 45 years for revenge killing of prison officer

A former inmate was jailed for at least 45 years after murdering an ex-prison officer in a revenge killing.

Elias Morgan, 35, shot father-of-three Lenny Scott six times at close range as he left a gym in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, in February 2024.

Four years earlier, while working at HMP Altcourse in Liverpool, Mr Scott, 33, had recovered a mobile phone from Morgan's cell that revealed the inmate was having an affair with a female prison guard.

Morgan, from Edge Hill, Liverpool, first tried to bribe Mr Scott by offering him £1,500 to not report the find.

When Mr Scott refused and reported the phone, Morgan threatened the then-prison officer's family and told him: "I'll bide my time, but I promise I will get you."

CCTV footage captured the moment Mr Scott was gunned down while Morgan was on bail for having the phone in his cell.

Mr Scott had left the Prison Service three years before the shooting took place.

Morgan handed himself in to police after his name began circulating in connection with the attack.

The killer denied any involvement but was convicted of murder by a jury following a trial at Preston Crown Court. Anthony Cleary, 29, a friend of Morgan's who had been accused of helping to plan the shooting, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter.

Sentencing Morgan to a life term, Mr Justice Goose Morgan he was satisfied the murder was a "revenge killing" for what Mr Scott "did lawfully in his duty as a prison officer".

"The murder has caused profound grief to the deceased's family, his young children and all who knew him," he said.

"He was 33 with most of his life ahead of him.

"He was loved, he was respected and he made them proud."

The judge's sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-...

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