NEED TO KNOW
- Elias Morgan was sentenced to 45 years in prison for the murder of Lenny Scott
- Scott was a former prison guard who discovered a cellphone in Morgan’s cell when he was a prisoner in 2020. The cellphone revealed an affair Morgan was having with another jailhouse officer
- Morgan warned Scott he’d “bide” his time and seek revenge, shooting and killing him four years later
A former British inmate has been sentenced to 45 years back behind bars after he was convicted last month of killing an ex-prison guard who exposed the illicit affair he was having with another officer in 2020.
Elias Morgan, 35, had plotted his revenge for years, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Morgan shot and killed Lenny Scott, who was a jailhouse guard while Morgan was previously behind bars and had exposed the affair Morgan was having with a female guard after discovering a secret cellphone in his cell during a search, according to prosecutors with the CPS.
Prosecutors said during Morgan’s trial that he was “driven by revenge” and waited four years to carry out Scott’s killing outside of his gym in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.
Morgan initially tried to bribe Scott with 1,500 euros to not turn in the cell phone that he discovered inside his cell back in 2020. However, after Scott refused the bribe, Morgan began to threaten him and warned the prison guard that he would “bide his time, but that he would get him,” prosecutors alleged.
Morgan stalked Scott at his home, at his former gym, and then at his new gym, where he eventually carried out the shooting on Feb. 8, 2024. Morgan shot Scott, a father of three, six times point blank in the head, prosecutors said. He turned himself in three weeks later on Feb. 22, 2024, and later pleaded not guilty to Scott’s murder. He was convicted, however, on Aug. 29.
“Morgan — driven by revenge and believing he was above the law — carried out a cold-blooded murder,” said Wendy Logan, the Deputy Head of CPS North West’s Complex Casework Unit. “We were determined to deliver justice and see Morgan brought to book for his evil crime and our case set out in clear terms how he planned and carried out his callous act.”
The BBC reported that local police described the murder in grave terms, saying Scott was “assassinated” by Morgan, who was described as a “cold-blooded executioner.” Sky News published security camera footage from the shooting, showing the moment Morgan walked out from behind a car and up to Scott before raising a gun to his head.
Morgan had been out of prison on bail at the time of the shooting, according to the outlet.
Scott’s mother Paula Scott read an emotional impact statement in court Tuesday, Sept. 2, before Morgan was sentenced. “My son was everything you are not,” she told Morgan. “He was strong, brave, honest, respectful. He lost his life for standing up for what was right. You are a vile, inhuman, coward.”
Paula said she will “forever be proud” of her late son before describing the impact his murder has had on the family.
“Morgan has no regard for the impact of his actions,” the victim’s mother said. “He not only has stolen Lenny’s future, but he has stolen our future with him. Lenny now won’t achieve all the things he was working towards, all the plans he had with his children, his chance to see them grow and flourish, that has been taken away from us all.”
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