Essex Boys shotgun killer fails in bid for jail transfer
NOTORIOUS Essex Boys triple murderer Michael Steele wants a transfer to an open prison despite never taking a single anti-violence course during his 22 years behind bars.
He failed to attend any training during his sentence for the slaughter of three drug dealers blasted to death with shotguns.
The bodies of Pat Tate, 37, Tony Tucker, 38, and Craig Rolfe, 26, were found in a Range Rover on an isolated track in Rettendon in December 1995. They were suspected of supplying ecstasy pills that led to the death of Leah Betts, 18. An image of her on a life support machine made national headlines as a warning to others.
Steele, 76, and associate Jack Whomes, 57, were convicted after supergrass Darren Nichols said he drove them to carry out the murders and phone evidence placed them in the area at the time. Both got life terms.
Whomes, dubbed a model prisoner, was transferred to an open prison in Suffolk last year, and began working a six-day week as a mechanic. He is set for release this year.
The Parole Board rejection of Steele’s application included that he had not been assessed for offender management programmes. Judge James Orrell wrote in his verdict: “During the course of his sentence, the applicant had done no offending behaviour work designed to reduce his risk of causing serious harm.”
The judge said Steele also went off at tangents about being wrongfully convicted, police corruption and other matters.
He will not be eligible to apply for release until 2023, but could make a fresh application to be transferred to an open prison in early 2022.A Parole Board spokesman said: “Lifers typically get a review every two years. This will almost definitely be the case for Mr Steele.”
In 1998 Nicholls told the Old Bailey he drove the pair to the farm track. Several films have been made about the murders, including the original Essex Boys in 2000, starring Sean Bean, Larry Lamb and Tom Wilkinson.
The Criminal Case Review Commission has reviewed the convictions of Whomes and Steele for the past two years after they provided a new dossier of evidence. It centres on a confidential Met Police corruption report called Operation Tiberius, which detailed how the force had intelligence on a London gang boss offering to a former detective to “take out” the people who supplied drugs to Leah Betts.
This intelligence was never placed before the jury at their trial. A CCRC spokesman said: “The case remains under review.”