Road-rage killer Noye wins High Court challenge over Gove’s open prison decision

ROAD-rage killer Kenneth Noye has won a High Court challenge against a decision refusing him a move to open prison conditions.

Noye, now 69, was convicted of murder in April 2000 and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years, after stabbing 21-year-old electrician Stephen Cameron to death in an attack on the M25 in Kent in 1996.

In September 2015 the Parole Board declined to order his release, but recommended he be transferred to open conditions. But the board’s recommendation was rejected by then justice secretary Michael Gove.

A judge in London ruled in Noye’s favour yesterday. Mr Justice Lavender quashed the refusal decision made on November 5, 2015 and announced: “It will be for the current Secretary of State to take a fresh decision whether or not to transfer the claimant to an open prison.”

Noye’s QC argued at a hearing last month that the rejection decision was “unlawful and irrational’’.

The judicial review challenge was contested by current Justice Secretary Liz Truss, who said there was ‘’nothing irrational’’ in the decision taken.

But Mr Justice Lavender ruled that the “Secretary of State approached the assessment of both the risk of future violence and the related risk of absconding on an inappropriate basis”.