A FORMER Met Police detective claims he's found proof that the Essex Boys' killers are innocent.
Drug dealers Tony Tucker, 38, Patrick Tate, 37, and Craig Rolfe were shot dead in a Range Rover at a farm in Rettendon, Essex.
The trio's bodies were discovered by a farmer the following morning, sparking a huge police hunt for their killers.
Jack Whomes and Michael Steele were convicted by a jury of the triple murder, despite protesting their innocence.
Whomes, 61, was freed by the Parole Board in 2021, but Steele, 79, is still a Category A prisoner.
Now former Met Police detective David McKelvey claims he's found evidence which proves the pair are innocent.
Read More UK News
I was banged up in UK’s worst prison… The Krays sent me a note on my first day
Five times Charles Bronson BLEW chances of parole during freedom bid
David was one of the officers who arrested David Nicholls, whose evidence was a crucial in securing a conviction.
Nicholls claimed he had been a getaway driver for Whomes and Steele – but McKelvey now says he has "serious doubts" about his account.
Most read in The Sun
Nicola Bulley police divers return to river months after mum's death
Tragedy as footballer dies suddenly leaving his family & club devastated
Huge Eighties supergroup 'to reform' after 20 years for Eurovision Song Contest
Gritty BBC One drama set to return for second series
He told EssexLive: "We started back in 2019, I got approached by a member of the original defence team.
"I was there and part of it. I thought 100 per cent they are guilty.
"She sent me some material which I looked at and that started raising some doubts.
"I went and got more material and had more doubts, and went back over what I could remember of what happened in 1996 and then it started raising serious questions in my head about what had gone on.
"The process has been to review every single piece of material, every bit of documentary evidence and then once we have done that, the first question we asked ourselves was 'Has Darren Nicolls told the truth, yes or no?'
"If he has told the truth, then Michael Steele and Jack Whomes are guilty and are rightly serving a sentence of imprisonment.
"That’s exactly what the judge said to the jury during the trial, if you believe DN then they’re guilty, if you don’t, they’re innocent men."
The people who did that murder are still out there
McKelvey then came across the evidence of Witness A, another man arrested in January 1996 in relation to other matters.
Witness A claimed that the murders were the result of an armed robbery, not a drug deal gone wrong.
The detective claimed that Essex Police chose not investigate Witness A's claims, and that he would not have aired his suspicions if there was any chance Steele and Whomes were guilty.
He said: "There has been a serious miscarriage of justice and if we had any doubts, and if anything had come along in the last 3 and a half years that would change our minds, or made us doubt they were innocent, we would have walked away immediately.
"We’ve spent our careers putting people behind bars, not letting guilty people out of prison.
"But at the same time it can never be right that two men who didn’t commit an offence are in prison, particularly for a murder they never committed.
"Michael Steele is still a category A prisoner, aged 79 years, locked up seven days a week, 23 hours a day.
Read More on The Sun
Urgent warning for 150,000 grandparents missing out on £6,875 pension boost
Parents are scrambling to get their hands on kids’ Croc dupes from Home Bargains
"He is undoubtedly innocent of the murders. The people who did that murder are still out there."
It comes after Steele was given a fresh hope of being released with a new parole board hearing scheduled for next month.
Source: Read Full Article
