If he had referred the pictures to MOD then Cpl Plod would have carried out an investigation and found the pictures were fake
It needed no Cpl Plod, as anyone with an ounce of common sense could see that these pictures were fake in seconds.
the "newsworthy" aspect of the pictures would have diminished and a rival news organisation may have beaten the ragsheet to the story.
Story? The pictures were very obvious fakes. So what story?
Morgan must have known that these pictures were not genuine, What his motives were for publishing would be most interesting to discover.