A man found guilty of plotting to murder his then wife more than 40 years ago has been jailed for life with a minimum of 22 years.

Allen Morgan, 74, was sentenced at Luton Crown Court on Monday.

The man had been having an affair with his current wife - Margaret Morgan, 75 - when his former wife Carol was found hacked to death at the grocery shop they both ran in Linslade, Bedfordshire, on 13 August 1981.

Image: Allen Morgan, left, in 1981 after his then wife Carol was murdered. Pics: PA/Bedfordshire Police

He was unanimously convicted by a jury of conspiracy to murder in June.

The judge, Mr Justice Martin Spencer, read remarks from Morgan's step daughter Jane during sentencing, who said: "It made me feel as though my life has been a lie, and the people I trusted most in the world may have been capable of a terrible betrayal of that trust."

Margaret Morgan - who left her husband and moved in with Allen Morgan after Carol's death - was also charged for conspiracy but was later acquitted.

Officers originally believed Carol was the victim of a burglary gone wrong as her husband took his two stepchildren to the cinema in Luton to see a double bill on the day she was killed.

But a cold case investigation in 2018 uncovered a witness, who was 17 years old at the time, who linked Allen Morgan to the killing.

Image: Allen Morgan. Pic: PA/Bedfordshire Police

An unknown attacker struck around 7pm that day and Carol was killed inside the store room after she closed the shop.

The killer, who has never been identified, used a heavy weapon to hack at Carol, causing fatal injuries to her body and skull, the court was told.

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