Multi-millionaire found guilty of murdering escort girlfriend who was blackmailing him

Morgan's actions were 'calculated and he committed the act without emotion', says Detective Superintendent Roger Fortey, who led the investigation

Morgan being interviewed by police during the search for Symonds (Gwent Police/PA Wire)

A multi-millionaire property developer has been found guilty of murdering his escort girlfriend after hearing of her plans to fleece him, leave him and work for other men.

Peter Morgan, 54, told the jury at Newport Crown Court that he twice released the pressure around Georgina Symonds neck but strangled his 25-year-old lover after she told him: "You're going to pay for this".

He said: "I had just been pushed too far."

Newport Crown Court heard the father-of-two paid the former burlesque dancer, up to £10,000 per month and allowed her to live rent-free at the £300,000 bungalow in Llanmartin, Newport, where the murder took place.

Ms Symonds had a series of intimate pictures, including some of him engaging in threesomes at his family home in Usk, Gwent, as well as images of her wearing his wife's dressing gown, the court heard.

Morgan claimed that she threatened to show the photographs – many of them taken by the millionaire himself – to his wife and two daughters if he ever left her in November 2015.

To prove it was not an empty threat, she told him that she had already secured the £70,000 life savings of an elderly client from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, he said.

She also planned to extract £2,000 per month from another former client, he added.

Following her death, police recovered Ms Symonds' white Samsung mobile phone from underneath the driver's seat of Morgan's Porsche 911.

They were able to recover thousands of text messages between the pair, along with missives to her lover Tom Ballinger, other escorts and her friends and family.

She told a man: "Once I've rinsed Rich Pete, it's you and me baby."

Officers also found a dossier of images and videos featuring herself, Morgan and other escorts. Some were taken at his family home.

The contact details for Morgan's wife, Helen, were also found on the device.

The court also heard that an increasingly paranoid Morgan installed a listening device, disguised as a white plug adapter, at his girlfriend's bungalow.

It was equipped with a Sim card that received calls, allowing Morgan to listen in.

Morgan called the device 514 times between November 2015 and her death in January 2016, sometimes listening in for up to two hours at a time.

"I can remember her saying she would 'do me over' and I just assumed it was financially," he told the court.

"I just couldn't believe it," he added. "I was numb. Devastated...I just knew I wasn't going to give in. I thought the 'do me over' was financially, meaning blackmail."

Hours before the mother-of-one's death, Morgan claimed he overheard a phone conversation in which she discussed with her new boyfriend Tom Ballinger leaving him but continuing to fleece him.

Morgan then made a list of items reading "Sim, gloves, snip, handle, tape, adapter" as he planned to kill her.

After the murder he wrapped up the body and hid it in an outbuilding near the farmhouse where his wife and two daughters lived.

But he later confessed to police and directed them to the body.

In court he admitted to the killing but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility and loss of control.

But after deliberating for four days the jury convicted him of murder.

Speaking after the verdict Detective Superintendent Roger Fortey, who led the investigation, said Morgan's actions were "calculated and he committed the act without emotion."

Ms Symonds's mother, Deborah said her death had been "a devastating tragedy for the whole of our family."

Press Association