This is an odd one.

53 year old millionaire property developer, Peter Morgan, from LLanellen Wales, murdered his 25 year old lover after discovering she was planning to blackmail him for more money and leave him once she'd got him to sign over the property to her.

She was a former escort and stripper but he'd been paying her £10k a month as his 'live in lover' providing her with a house and showering her with expensive gifts.

Morgan who immediately admitted murdering her when questioned, lived in a castle and said to be worth £20 million has been sentenced to life.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...dancer-paying/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38390909

I read about this a few weeks ago.

The problem here was that as far as he was concerned, he was having a relationship with her.
As far as she was concerned, he was just a client..

The old saying, money cant buy you love.

I wonder what his wife thought?

You'd think with all that dosh he would have got off. 😛

Horrific.

It seemed she saw him as a lot more than just a client! The judge acknowledged Morgan was provoked, saying the abuse he suffered was "vicious, persistent and extreme" and the threat of blackmail by Miss Symonds was "gross and appalling and an abuse of trust."

He was estranged from his wife so i gather they were no longer living together.

It reminded me more of US murder documentaries i watch on CBS Reality etc. Those often revolve around money. One murdered her 'wealthy' husband after finding he was a fraudster worth nothing. She'd hoped to cash in on his $1 million life insurance but even that was forged!

I guess money can't buy you love, happiness, or social adequacy.

Her best friend, Sexy Lexy said "He loved her but she just wanted his money".

He was referred to as Rich Pete. The thing is, she was in love with Poor Pete the electrician

Rich Pete kept his life with prostitutes a secret from his respected father, who is a representive of the Queen & has an MBE

No sympathy for either of them. She sounded like a nasty piece of work and he definitively proved that he is one, as well as a pathetic one for basically purchasing a girlfriend. I feel sorry for both of their families though, this must be hugely upsetting and humiliating for them. She has a young son too I understand, poor soul.

How many was she playing off with? In the Telegraph link it said where the phone call he listened in to the night before he murdered her was with Thomas Ballinger, her new boyfriend!

Morgan has owned the castle since 2003 which he bought as a long derelict ruin. Shame he threw it all away for what he thought was 'love' though it seems he knew if his money ever dried up, Miss Symonds would have been off like a shot.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3190951

http://www.pencoedcastle.com/

I saw this on the news tonight.

You have to be a pretty awful person to blackmail someone.

It doesn't justify him killing her though.

I haven't read about Thomas, only rich Pete & poor Pete. Poor Pete who she was in love with, died in 2015, so unfortunately she was left only with Rich Pete who she didn't love, but paid the bills & gave her the lifestyle she had become addicted too.

Thomas probably came about after she decided to start again, after poor Pete died.

SouthWales Argus

Surely that's the deal between unscrupulous people who pay/charge for sex . Did he offer to marry her if he was so in love with her? .
She is dead so unable to give her side of the financial deal and arrangements .
She sounds pretty callous but does not deserves to be murdered . Depressing to read posts here that imply " she deserved it" .
Sounds like many prostitutes she was feeding a drug habit.
Dysfunctional people become more dysfunctional together.

No it doesn't though from reading more articles about it, it's quite apparent she was playing a dangerous game and fuelling the fire. Her greed was her downfall. His was meeting her and believing he could buy 'love'.



I think she had a few 'on the go'. When Morgan became suspicious she was up to something he bugged the house he'd given her rent free. He heard her telling Thomas she was going to dump him once she'd managed to get the property off him, then blackmail him for more money.

He heard that the evening before he murdered her and that finally tipped him over the edge.

For goodness sake she was a prostitute, he was a client , she was having sex and faking interest for money , he was paying her to fake it to make him feel good. That was and is the accepted agreement between prostitute and client. He wanted her exclusively but wasn't offering a real relationship , she had a drug problem and other clients, she blackmailed him , he should have gone to the police. No he murdered her because she was expendable. She was a commodity.

I don't think anyone who either pays for sex or the prostitute providing the service expects to be victim to blackmail. That certainly isn't 'part of the deal'. Murder will always be a risk for any prostitute and whilst prostitution may be seen as 'unscrupulous' by a few people, it's long been known as the oldest profession in the world so is here to stay.

I don't think anyone has said she 'deserved' to be murdered.

and blackmail for any client. You pay your money and take your chance.

I think you are actually rather naive .

Even the judge commented in summing up he acknowledged Morgan was provoked, saying the abuse he suffered was "vicious, persistent and extreme" and the threat of blackmail by Miss Symonds was "gross and appalling and an abuse of trust."

I think his remarks speak volumes.

But not enough to count in mitigation that speaks louder . He got life , deservedly so.
Of course she was an appalling piece , she was vicious and terrible. Many thousands like her exist in the world but men with an ounce of sense and self respect divorce/walk away thank god and don't stoop to murder. This ain't no bloody love story.

I imagine most wealthy clients use wealthy prostitutes who wouldn't need to blackmail, unless they get greedy. He chose one that wasn't wealthy.

Like I said you take a chance.

I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to feel sympathy for the murderer.

You'd think for 10k a month he could buy better than her.

Poor Pete - Miss Symonds' (ex?) boyfriend - appears to be a casualty in this case as well.

The whole story is quite lurid, but I think reading how poor pete killed himself after a text message from her...no one is exactly innocent in this all.

(disclaimer - not implying she deserved to be murdered before anyone gets there)

Having read the details in last Saturdays Daily Mail - only get it because Dad likes the TV supplement - I wasn't surprised the way it went. Quite a sleazy seedy tale, where no-one comes out clean. The Escort site he used to come across that poor woman wasn't an agency one as such, it was more a low end yellow pages web site for various independent Escorts. Plus going by the pictures of them, she had a hard face, and he was just creepy.

It was just a sad sorry tale of a rich guy letting his little head over rule his big head, and one that went horribly wrong for all the wrong reasons. Anyone with a really good income who can afford to use Escorts, should realize it is just a business transaction, nothing more. As for the £10,000 per month or £2,500 per week, if you window shop the proper Escort agencies in London, you'd see you can get a much better looking Escort then what he hired. Just type 'high end Escorts London' in Google to see what I mean.