Road-rage killer Noye overturns minister’s ban on open jail move

High Court judge reverses decision by former justice secretary to keep murderer out of low-security facility

THE road rage killer Kenneth Noye has moved a step closer to freedom after winning a legal challenge that could allow him to be moved to an open prison.

A High Court judge yesterday overturned a former justice minister’s decision to block the 69-year-old murderer being transferred to a less restricted jail.

Noye was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum tariff of 16 years after being found guilty of stabbing to death 21-year-old electrician Stephen Cameron in an attack on the M25 in Kent in 1996.

In 2015, Michael Gove, then justice secretary, rejected a recommendation from the Parole Board that Noye be transferred to an open jail.

A judge has now quashed Mr Gove’s decision, after Noye’s lawyers argued that the minister had “failed to give proper or adequate weight to the recommendation of the Parole Board”.

It will be now up to the current Justice Secretary, Liz Truss, to make a fresh ruling on the issue.

Noye’s QC argued at a hearing last month that the rejection was “unlawful and irrational” as Noye now posed less of a risk. Edward Fitzgerald QC, for Noye, said the Parole Board panel “concluded that the benefits of a move to open conditions outweighed the risk of such a move, and they found that the claimant’s risk had significantly reduced” since the killing of Mr Cameron.

He added: “They noted that he had made significant progress in changing his attitudes and tackling his behavioural problems.”

Mr Fitzgerald said the Parole Board had made its decision after considering Noye’s criminal history and links to the world of serious organised crime, as well as the risk he would abscond.

He told the court: “They concluded on the basis of all the evidence presented that it was inherently unlikely that the claimant would throw away the opportunity for release on licence in the foreseeable future in return for a life on the run in a foreign land.”

Mr Cameron’s family have said they will fight Noye’s move to an open prison and believe he should stay in jail for life. His father, Ken Cameron, said when the Parole Board first made its decision: “We would like to see justice in this case. I think life should mean life.”

Noye was already one of the country’s most feared gangsters when he stabbed Mr Cameron to death on a slip road of the M25 in front of his girlfriend.

He had previously been acquitted of the murder of undercover police officer John Fordham after claiming he had mistaken him for an intruder and was acting in self-defence. But he was sentenced to 14 years in jail for his part in the 1983 Brink’s-Mat bullion robbery.

After the road rage killing, Noye fled the country until a manhunt traced him to Spain and he was extradited. He was jailed for life and later given a minimum tariff of 16 years.

Tom Weisselberg QC, for the Justice Secretary, had told the court Mr Gove personally rejected the Parole Board’s recommendation because of his doubts that Noye had reformed.

He said: “He was rightly concerned about a decision which would have the effect of undermining public confidence.”

Noye is believed to be currently held in HM Prison The Mount, near Hemel Hempstead, Herts.

‘It was inherently unlikely he would throw away the opportunity for release on licence for a life on the run’