Was Essex Boys murder revenge for heist theft?
THE notorious Essex Boys murders were ordered by a top tier Brink’s Mat villain in revenge for missing heist money, a team of former detectives believes.
Drug dealers Pat Tate, 37, Tony Tucker, 38, and Craig Rolfe, 26, were found shot dead in a Range Rover on an isolated farm track in Rettendon, near Basildon, on the morning of December 7, 1995.
Three years later Michael Steele and Jack Whomes, now 77 and 58, were convicted of the murders on the evidence of supergrass Darren Nicholls, who claimed to be the getaway driver.
But now the former murder detectives claim to have unearthed a significant line of inquiry into a row over the proceeds of an armed robbery that they say was never properly investigated.
They believe this could have led to a serious miscarriage of justice.
Former Met Police DCI
Dave Mckelvey, now boss of private investigation firm TM Eye, is leading the review, which is focused on official statements
made by criminal
Jasper but never made public.
Jasper told police four months before Nicholls made his statements that he was actually the getaway driver and that Brink’s Mat money launderer Patsy “Bolt Eyes” Clark had ordered the hit. Mr Mckelvey said: “They had the name of a major criminal, said to be behind the murders, the gunman, a credible motive and intelligence linking Tucker and money from the robbery.
“They also had the account of a man claiming to be the getaway driver, but chose to dismiss what he said because it did not fit
Billy
with their theory about Whomes and Steele.”
Nicholls told the Old Bailey the three victims were lured there by Whomes and Steele on the pretence of a drug deal, but were instead blasted to death. Whomes, released on parole after 23 years in March, and Steele have always insisted they are innocent and the real killers escaped justice.
Mr Mckelvey said Jasper’s account was “compelling”, fitting with intelligence available to the original investigation team and known to the former detectives who spent years investigating serious crime in London and Essex.
Patsy Clark, a former scrap dealer and nightclub owner, died aged 81 in November 2019.
In 1992 he was jailed for six years for laundering more than £4.2million of the proceeds of the infamous £26million gold bullion robbery of the Brink’s Mat warehouse at Heathrow Airport in 1983.
Jasper gave Essex Police his name and a motive early on in the investigation, but TM Eye says Clark was never even interviewed.
And Jasper gave defence evidence at Whomes and Steele’s trial that he was the real getaway driver for a different gunman, who is still alive and was never interviewed.
He referred in court to the alleged assassin as Mr D.
Jasper said he had been paid £5,000 to drive Mr D to the scene on the night the three were killed. Jasper asked to speak to detectives on the case and said he wanted protection as he feared he would be killed for “knowing too much”.
Whomes and Steele, who remains a category A prisoner, have failed in a number of appeal bids.
Their latest application was made to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in May 2018, but there has yet to be an outcome.
Essex Police said: “There was an exhaustive police investigation and, following the trial and convictions, the evidence has been examined by the CCRC and the Court of Appeal.
“This case is currently under review with the CCRC. It would be inappropriate to comment further whilst their review is ongoing.”