Over 14 years since Paul “Birdy” Morson was murdered, his body has never been found
20:47, 25 Aug 2025Updated 20:47, 25 Aug 2025
Paul Morson
A man whose body has never been found met his end in a plastic-wrapped room as a lifelong friend had planned and then carried out his murder. Well-known Huyton car dealer Paul Morson, known to friends as “Birdy”, was last seen alive aged 31 in June 2011.
The following year, his lifelong friend, John Burns and Raymond Brierly, were found guilty of tying him up, lying him down on plastic sheeting, torturing him by drowning him in a bucket and beating him to death with a hammer. A third man, Scott Callaghan, was also charged with murder and manslaughter.
He was found not guilty of those two charges and instead pleaded guilty of perverting the course of justice by driving Mr Morson’s van away from the murder scene in Whiston and dumping it near Crewe.
But despite the murder being more than 14 years ago, Mr Morson’s family have never been able to lay him to rest due to the callousness of his killers. As part of a weekly series looking into Merseyside’s crime history, the ECHO has explored the events around Mr Morson’s death and disappearance.
Paul Morson, from Huyton
Mr Morson was a well-known figure in the Huyton area and was known to those closest to him as “Birdy” because of a white lump of hair on his head.
Mr Morson disappeared on June 8 2011 after borrowing a friend’s van. Police were initially at a loss as to what had happened, but a breakthrough in the case came when Callaghan began spreading stories about witnessing a bloody murder and being paid to dump the victim’s van.
Several witnesses came forward to give evidence of what he had been saying, which caused Burns and Brierly to be looked into by detectives. The murder was said to have been committed in an effort to get the combination for a safe stuffed with cash, that Mr Morson kept in his house.
It was believed Mr Morson had put as much as £50,000 into Burns’ business, I Security, and was getting annoyed that it wasn’t being paid back. It was also said that Mr Morson had been growing cannabis at Brierly’s house in Whiston.
Police search a cottage as they look for Paul Morson’s body
Prosecutor Neil Flewitt KC later told the murder trial that Callaghan had visited Brierly’s home with Burns and once inside “saw a lad tied up and blood everywhere”.
Mr Flewitt said: “Once inside the house, he heard screams because a lad who worked for John Burns called Birdy was getting battered.
“He went into a room and saw a lad tied up and blood everywhere. Ray told him to hit the lad with a hammer because both Ray and John had hit the lad with a hammer and they didn’t want Scott Callaghan to ‘grass them up’. He then ran out, jumped in the (Paul Morson’s) van, drove to Crewe and dumped the van somewhere.”
He also told a girlfriend, Diane Hurley, that he had seen Paul Morson lying on plastic and Burns repeatedly shoving his face in a water bucket.
The court heard from forensic scientists who said nails with bits of plastic attached were found “as if plastic sheeting had been placed over the walls” and the room was recently repainted and new laminate flooring put down.
But Brierly told the court he had acted in self defence after Mr Morson attacked him with a pair of scissors. He said the victim had threatened to disfigure his wife, before the scissor attack – and he defended himself with a bar stool and a hammer. This was found to be a lie.
The court heard spots of Mr Morson’s blood were found on furniture in Brierly’s house, consistent with wet blood flying off after a body had been struck by a hammer. The proceedings heard the victim had been tied up on plastic sheeting before he was attacked with a lump hammer.
Brierly told police Callaghan and Burns turned up later and Burns said Mr Morson’s “associates” would kill him if they found out what happened so he wrapped his body, which had a chisel sticking out of his chest, in plastic sheeting and weighted it with breeze blocks before putting it in water near the Runcorn Bridge. This was also taken to be a lie with the judge saying that denying Mr Morson’s family the opportunity to bury him ‘elevated his wickedness’.
Ray Brierly (left) and John Burns were found guilty of murdering Paul Morson
Burns meanwhile said he arrived at the house when Mr Morson was already dead and that his input was limited to telling Brierly that Paul Morson was a “high level criminal” and they were all dead if it came out he had killed him. He denied helping hide the body.
In the end the judge in the case, His Honour Jude Clement Goldstone QC, said Mr Morson was ‘not in their league’ despite being their business partner in a cannabis farm.
The court heard a safe went missing from Mr Morson’s house, before Burns was seen to gamble £3,700 at a Liverpool casino despite his poor state of finances. Brierly meanwhile was able to pay off hundreds of pounds of debt over the telephone. Callaghan was also heard to boast that he had been paid £2,000 in the pub.
A jury took 19 hours and 36 minutes to come to majority verdicts in the case. As bespectacled Burns was found guilty by a ten to two majority. Brierly was found guilty by an eleven to one majority.
Burns was given a minimum of 30 years behind bars and Brierley a minimum of 25 years. Callaghan was acquitted of murder and manslaughter but was handed an immediate sentence of eight years for perverting the course of justice.
Calculating killers Burns and Brierly challenged their convictions, alleging at the Court of Appeal that their trial had been “unfair”. However, their case was dismissed.
But despite the heinousness of the crime and the fact the two killers were convicted, they have never revealed where Mr Morson’s body is, much to the anguish of his family. A member of Mr Morson’s family told the ECHO in 2021: “We want Paul home so we can have closure on this after all these years.”
Dave Brunskill, head of the homicide support unit at Merseyside Police, said: “Three men were convicted following the murder of Paul Morson in 2012, but sadly his body has never been found and we would welcome any new information that could bring his family closure.
“Despite extensive enquiries and searches, Paul’s body has never been recovered. His family were left devastated by his murder and this was made all the more difficult because they have never been able to mourn his death in the way they wanted. We know this crime was committed 13 years ago, however we are confident someone out there still has the information that could help locate his body.
“I would like to take this opportunity to appeal once again to anyone out there who may know where Paul’s body is to get in touch to help bring his family closure.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Merseyside Police’s social media desk via X @MerPolCC or on Facebook ‘Merseyside Police Contact Centre’. Alternatively people can anonymously contact Crimestoppers via their website.