Man guilty of murdering former prison officer Lenny Scott

A drug dealer has been found guilty of murdering a former prison officer in an “act of revenge” four years after he seized a mobile phone from his jail cell.

Father-of-three Lenny Scott was shot six times outside a gym in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, on 8 February 2024 as he emerged from a jiu-jitsu training session.

Gunman Elias Morgan, 35, was convicted of murder by unanimous verdicts after a nine-week trial at Preston Crown Court, while his co-accused Anthony Cleary, 29, was found not guilty of both murder and manslaughter.

The jury heard the discovery of the phone in HMP Altcourse, Liverpool, exposed a sexual relationship between Morgan and another prison officer called Sarah Williams.

Neither defendant appeared to react as the eight men and three women of the jury returned their verdicts, after five hours and 24 minutes of deliberations.

Cleary had been accused of supporting Morgan’s murder plan by delivering a getaway van and an electric bike to the scene of the shooting, but told the jury he had no idea his close friend was planning to shoot anyone.

The jury had heard by the time of the shooting Morgan was out of prison after completing a sentence for drugs offences.

However he had been re-arrested on suspicion of possessing the phone in prison and was on bail ahead of a trial scheduled for 11 days after the shooting.

Alex Leach KC, prosecuting, had told the jury the evidence revealed a “powerful image” of Morgan being “driven by a desire for revenge” to kill Mr Scott.

The jury heard the chain reaction leading to murder began on 26 March 2020 when Mr Scott refused a cash bribe to “lose” the phone found in Morgan’s cell.

At the time Mr Scott told his father, Neil Scott, that Morgan had said to him: “I’ll bide my time, but I promise I will get you” before making a gun gesture with his fingers.