It has been almost 30 years since one of the UK’s most notorious murder cases – the gangland shooting of three drug dealers whose bodies were found in a Range Rover parked up on farmland in a small village in Essex.
Patrick Tate, 37, Tony Tucker, 38, and Craig Rolfe, 26, were each shot in the head at point-blank range in December 1995.
In 1998, two men, Michael Steele and Jack Whomes, were jailed for the triple murder that became known as one of the UK’s biggest gangland executions.
Search for any of these names online – or type in Essex Boys Murders, Rettendon Murders, Range Rover Murders, and you’ll get thousands of results – news stories, details of appeals, films based on the stories of those involved, interviews with associates, commentary on internet forums, and social media pages set up by armchair detectives.
The killings inspired films in The Rise of the Footsoldier franchise, as well as the 2000 film Essex Boys, starring Sean Bean.
Michael Steele and Jack Whomes (below) were jailed in 1998
Essex Police say the case has been “exhaustively examined” over the years – but despite the convictions, many believe there is more to the story.
Now, private investigators from the firm TM Eye, who began looking into the case in 2020, have told Sky News they have uncovered evidence that casts doubt on the convictions. They believe the real killer has walked free.
The investigation, headed by David McKelvey, a former Met Police detective, will be featured in an upcoming three-part series, The Essex Murders, on Sky Documentaries.
“We would not be doing this if we had any doubts at all,” he told Sky News. “We’re career detectives, we’ve put bad people in prison.
“We would not be trying to get anybody out of prison who we didn’t believe was innocent. Jack Whomes and Michael Steele did not do this.”
Mr McKelvey says the pair were involved in drugs offences, for which they should have been punished.
“But they did not carry out this murder,” he added. “And the important point here is: they didn’t do it, someone else did – and that person or those people are still on the streets.”
The original investigation
TM Eye private investigator David McKelvey. Pic: Sky UK
The bodies of Mr Tate, Mr Tucker and Mr Rolfe were discovered in the Range Rover on farmland in Rettendon, near Chelmsford, on the morning of 7 December 1995.
The scene provided little in the way of forensic evidence, according to reports from the time.
All three men were known by Essex Police; part of the reason the case became so high-profile was that Mr Tucker ran security for Raquels, the nightclub where Leah Betts had taken the ecstasy tablet that led to her death less than a month before the murders.
The TM Eye investigators question Essex Police’s timeline of the night of the murders, alleging the shooting happened at about midnight, rather than just before 7pm – a farmer who heard gunshots backs this in the programme – as well as mobile phone evidence presented during the trial.
But they believe the case against Whomes and Steele rested largely on the testimony of a man called Darren Nicholls.
The word of a ‘supergrass’
In May 1996, the man then known as Darren Nicholls was arrested on suspicion of possessing a large amount of cannabis that had been imported into Clacton from the Netherlands.
While being questioned by police over this case, he told officers it was Steele and Whomes who were behind the Essex Murders and that he had been the getaway driver.
Nicholls, who said the three men had been killed over a bad drugs deal, became known as a “supergrass”; he was placed under witness protection and given a new identity after giving evidence against the pair.
“Our start point was: did Darren Nicholls tell the truth?” Mr McKelvey said. “If he told the truth, then Michael Steele and Jack Whomes are guilty and that’s the end of it. But as we’ve delved into it all a different story has emerged.”
Albert Patrick, another former detective who worked on the private investigation, says: “You have got to be ultra careful when you’re dealing with the evidence of another criminal against a criminal, as simple as that.”
The documentary includes interviews with associates of the three men who died, as well as interviews with experts and police officers who investigated the case.
Former detective Ivan Dibley, who investigated the case at the time, says the right men were jailed. Pic: Sky UK
Former detective superintendent Ivan Dibley admits physical evidence was “scant” and there was an element of Nicholls “saving his own skin”, but that his account had an “enormous” amount of detail; he says his evidence was examined thoroughly and “it was pretty clear that what he said was true”.
There is “no doubt in my mind” that the right men were convicted, he adds. But the TM Eye investigators spoke to criminals, who feature anonymously in the documentary, who tell a different story.
‘A professional assassination’
One man, known as Witness A in the series, maintains the murders were linked to organised crime in east London and that the three men were actually killed over part of the proceeds of a £495,000 armed robbery allegedly being stolen by Mr Tucker.
This man was interviewed by Essex Police shortly after the deaths, the TM Eye investigators say, but his account was not taken any further.
This is the word of another self-confessed criminal – one of the various different accounts of what happened, from people who could have ulterior motives.
The investigators say they have to be cautious, but believe they were able to corroborate this account.
“Because of our backgrounds, our history and our knowledge of organised crime, particularly in east London, we were able to get behind that,” Mr McKelvey says. “We were able to identify officers who dealt with him, criminals who knew him, and his account is compelling.”
Towards the end of their investigation, they spoke to another anonymous witness who tells them he organised the hit.
The target was Mr Tucker, he says, because of the armed robbery. Mr Tate and Mr Rolfe were “collateral damage… wrong place, wrong time”.
“When you put the whole thing together, you had serious and organised crime behind this,” Mr McKelvey says. “You had a professional assassin, a sophisticated assassination.”
The Rise of the Footsoldier
Carlton Leach features in The Essex Murders documentary series. Pic: Sky UK
One person featured in the series is former football hooligan Carlton Leach, a friend and associate of Mr Tucker whose autobiography inspired The Rise of the Footsoldier film franchise.
He tells Sky News he wanted to take part to “speak up” for his friend. While he admits his lifestyle “wasn’t right”, he says there were “a lot of people living in that world, making money [from drugs]”.
He says Mr Tucker had told him of a “meet” with Steele. “So I do know that Mickey Steele was there or involved in how they got there. I can’t say for definite, because I wasn’t there… but I do know he was part of it. As far as I’m concerned, whether he pulled the trigger or not, he was part of the parcel that killed them.”
Read more:
Rise of the Footsoldier origins: The story behind cult Essex films
However, he believes there was at least one other person involved. “I don’t think the person who’s actually killed them has ever been caught, who pulled the trigger. And I think whoever did kill them was an assassin and had done it before… it wasn’t just a random shooting, it wasn’t someone just someone running up to the car. It was a planned murder. And it was done professionally.”
Where are Whomes and Steele now?
Michael Steele and Jack Whomes leaving the High Court under armed guard in 2006, when the sentences were appealed
Since the convictions, the case has been taken to the Court of Appeal several times.
The appeals have been rejected and in 2006 Lord Justice Kay said there was no “element of unsafety” relating to the original convictions of both defendants.
The case has also been reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and the decision was made in January 2023 not to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal.
Whomes, now 61, had his life sentence reduced in 2018 after making “exceptional progress” in prison and was approved for release under strict licence conditions in 2021, while Steele, 78, has a parole hearing in May.
What do Essex Police and the CCRC say?
The TM Eye investigators say they hope the documentary will encourage even more witnesses to come forward and that they believe the case should be reviewed by an independent police force.
A spokesperson for the CCRC said in a statement: “A comprehensive review has concluded there is no real possibility that the Court of Appeal would overturn these murder convictions.
“The decision notifications were shared with the applicants and their legal representatives.”
A spokesperson for Essex Police said there had been “an exhaustive” investigation into the murders and that the force welcomed the CCRC’s decision “as this case has been exhaustively examined over the last 27 years and there is no fresh evidence identified which would call the original verdicts into question”.
The Essex Murders starts at 9pm on 15 April on Sky Documentaries.
A grief-stricken family has told Sky News they want “someone to take accountability” for the death of Lewis Stone, a retired butcher who was killed by a secure psychiatric unit patient released 10 days earlier.
In her first TV interview, Mr Stone’s step-daughter Vicki Lindsay said they were calling for an internal NHS Trust report to be made public so that lessons can be learned.
“The thought of anybody going through what we’ve gone through for the last six years… We’re living a life sentence,” she said.
On 28 February 2019, Lewis Stone was where he loved being most – the remote town of Borth on the west coast of Wales near Aberystwyth. It’s where he and his wife, Elizabeth, had a holiday home and planned to retire.
Lewis’s step-daughter, Vicki Lindsay, says the family wants an apology and accountability
That morning, Lewis left for his daily pre-breakfast walk with his beloved dog Jock along the River Leri and never came home.
He had been stabbed multiple times, and despite repeated attempts to save his life, he died in hospital three months later.
Lewis’s killer, David Fleet, was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after admitting manslaughter with diminished responsibility.
Sentencing, Judge Paul Thomas QC said Lewis had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Lewis’s family disagrees: “I just want somebody to say, ‘Yes, we messed up, we’re sorry. It doesn’t change things but we’re sorry’.
“We’ve had none of that. Mum’s had nothing, no support, she’s had nothing. That’s all we want, an admission.”
Elizabeth and Lewis Stone, with their step-daughter Vicki Lindsay (centre), in happier times
Lewis Stone and his grand-daughter Sammy
Fleet was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the attack and told psychiatrists if he had not stabbed Mr Stone, the voices in his head “were going to kill him”.
Four months earlier, he had been detained under the Mental Health Act, but despite concerns raised by his own family, it was decided he should be treated at home.
The Hywel Dda health board told Sky News they don’t intend to release the internal report into Fleet’s care.
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Sharon Daniel, the Interim Executive Director for Nursing, Quality and Patient Experience, said: “The Duty of Candour for patients came into force in Wales in April 2023. At the time of this incident and concern, we fulfilled our duties to be open.”
When asked if they would be willing to apologise to both affected families, Ms Daniel said: “In the event of serious incidents, we have robust processes in place for reviewing internally, identifying any issues, and where appropriate preparing an improvement plan to prevent such an occurrence in the future. We regret such incidents and always seek to learn from them.”
In February, victims’ families in Nottingham won their fight for an NHS review into the care of paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane, who killed three people, to be made public. It exposed a catalogue of errors and systemic failings.
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In February, Sky’s Sarah-Jane Mee spoke to two mothers of two people killed by paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane
The family’s adviser and former NHS lawyer Radd Seiger, who also advised the Nottingham families, told Sky News the two cases have striking similarities: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant when there are problems in the NHS.
“Let’s have these things out in the open. Yes, they’re uncomfortable, but that’s the only way the NHS is going to learn from its mistakes.
“It’s no good them marking their own homework in private where journalists, or lawyers, or families don’t get to scrutinise these things because we see that these things keep happening over and over and over.”
David Fleet’s family declined an opportunity to speak to Sky News for this report.
The Welsh government said: “We are fully committed to openness and transparency in line with the Duty of Candour to ensure lessons are learned. We have also invested in improving both the quality and safety of mental health care in Wales.”
A host of local and mayoral elections will be taking place across England on Thursday 1 May – the first voting day since the general election last year.
There will also be a new Member of Parliament.
Here is everything you need to know – from what’s at stake to how you can vote.
Local elections
There will be local elections in 23 of England’s 317 local authorities on 1 May.
Some are slightly different to others, depending on the type of authority.
Here is the full list:
County councils
• Cambridgeshire
• Derbyshire
• Devon
• Gloucestershire
• Hertfordshire
• Kent
• Lancashire
• Leicestershire
• Lincolnshire
• Nottinghamshire
• Oxfordshire
• Staffordshire
• Warwickshire
• Worcestershire
Unitary authorities
• Buckinghamshire
• Cornwall
• County Durham
• North Northamptonshire
• Northumberland
• Shropshire
• West Northamptonshire
• Wiltshire
Metropolitan district
• Doncaster
The Isles of Scilly, which has a unique governance structure, is also holding a local election of its own.
Additionally, about 1,270 parish councils will be holding elections.
What is the difference between the types of authorities?
A county council is part of a two-tier local government system, taking care of things that affect the whole county, such as:
• Education
• Transport
• Planning
• Fire and public safety
• Social care
• Libraries
• Waste management
• Trading standards
They work alongside the other, lower-tier councils – district, borough or city – that take care of things on a smaller scale, such as:
• Rubbish collection
• Recycling
• Council tax collections
• Housing
• Planning applications
A unitary authority is a one-tier local government, where the services of a county council and the other smaller councils listed above are combined.
A metropolitan district has a council that oversees all services, similar to a unitary authority – but has a mayor with a role similar to that of local councils.
The mayors for Doncaster and North Tyneside are single authority, making them the political leader of the council and leaving them responsible for delivering local council services.
Metro mayors chair combined authorities made up of several local councils.
Metro mayor election
There are six mayoral elections taking place on 1 May, two of which are the first ever in their areas.
One of them is for the West of England, where the current mayor is Dan Norris, who was elected as a Labour MP when he defeated Jacob Rees-Mogg to win the seat of North East Somerset and Hanham in last year’s general election.
Labour MP Dan Norris. File pic: PA
Mr Norris, who has been mayor since 2021, has to vacate the role because the Labour Party introduced rules to prevent serving MPs from standing as mayoral candidates.
There is another mayoral election in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, while the first mayors for Hull and East Yorkshire and Greater Lincolnshire will be chosen after devolution deals were agreed in 2023, bringing together local councils in both areas to create larger authorities.
There will also be elections for the next mayor of Doncaster and North Tyneside.
New MP for Runcorn and Helsby
A by-election is also being held in Runcorn and Helsby after Labour’s Mike Amesbury agreed to stand down following his conviction for punching a man in the street.
Amesbury, who was suspended from the Labour Party, was jailed on 24 February for 10 weeks after he pleaded guilty to assault by beating of 45-year-old Paul Fellows in Main Street, Frodsham, Cheshire, in the early hours of 26 October.
However, following an appeal, his sentence was suspended for two years.
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Amesbury steps down as MP
His resignation means Karen Shore, the deputy leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council, will run for Labour in the by-election, while the Conservatives are putting forward Sean Houlston, a membership services manager for the National Federation of Builders, and Sarah Pochin, a former Cheshire East councillor, is Reform’s candidate.
Amesbury came first in Runcorn and Helsby with 22,358 votes at the 2024 general election – equating to 52.9% of the electorate.
Reform UK came in second with 7,662 votes (18.1%) and the Tories in third with 6,756 votes (16%).
Outcomes could have significant national impact
The elections will be the first big test of all the parties since the general election, which fundamentally redrew the UK’s political landscape with a new world of multiparty politics.
The Tories have the most to lose as they hold 20 of the 23 local authorities up for grabs on 1 May.
And for the first time in a long time, Labour and the Conservatives are facing a genuine threat from other parties.
YouGov conducted exclusive polling for Sky News to get a sense of how the country was feeling ahead of the elections, surveying 2,178 adults in the UK on 6 and 7 April.
Here is the voting intention poll:
• Labour: 24% (no change)
• Reform UK: 23% (no change)
• Conservatives: 22% (+1)
• Liberal Democrats: 17% (+3)
• Green Party: 9% (-2)
It suggests that Nigel Farage’s Reform UK could be Labour’s closest competitor, with Kemi Badenoch trailing as she leads the Conservatives through elections for the first time, while the Lib Dems have closed the gap on the three top parties.
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How do I register to vote?
You have until 11.59pm on Friday to register to vote if you haven’t already.
You must be aged 16 or over (or 14 or over in Scotland and Wales) to register to vote – but to vote for a new MP you must be at least 18.
You can register if you are:
• A British citizen
• An Irish or EU citizen living in the UK
• A Commonwealth citizen who has permission to enter or stay in the UK, or who does not need permission
• A citizen of another country living in Scotland or Wales who has permission to enter or stay in the UK, or who does not need permission
• You can be an overseas voter if you previously lived in the UK and are a British citizen.
The easiest and quickest way to register is online.
Alternatively, you can use a paper form – though it may be too close to the deadline for you to complete this by the deadline.
You can do it by contacting your local Electoral Registration Office and asking them to post a form to you. Or you can print your own form off. You’ll then need to return the completed form to your local Electoral Registration Office.
How can I cast my vote?
There are three ways to vote:
In person at your local polling station
You’ll be sent a poll card just before an election or referendum telling you when to vote and at which polling station. It will usually be in a public building, such as a school or local hall, near your home.
You can only vote at the polling station allocated to your address. This will be shown on your poll card. You can also enter your postcode on this website to find out where your polling station is.
You will be able to cast your vote any time between 7am and 10pm
You must bring a form of photo ID with you in order to vote. There are 22 accepted types of ID.
At the polling station, you will need to give your name and address to staff and show them your photo ID.
There will be instructions in the polling booth telling you exactly how to cast your vote.
Postal vote
You can register to vote by post for any reason, including that you simply don’t want to go to a polling station on the day.
You need to apply for this by 5pm on 14 April and can do so by clicking here.
Postal votes now expire every three years, so if you registered to do so more than three years ago, you will need to re-apply.
By proxy
This is where you apply for someone to vote on your behalf if you cannot go to the polling station in person and do not want to or can’t vote by post.
You and your proxy must both be registered to vote in the UK before you can apply.
The deadline to apply for proxy voting in the May 1 elections is 5pm on 23 April, and you can apply here.
Which elections have been postponed – and why?
Elections for county councils in the following areas have been postponed until May 2026:
• Norfolk
• Suffolk
• Essex
• Thurrock
• Surrey
• East and West Sussex
• Hampshire
• Isle of Wight
Most areas of the UK are now covered by one-tier systems such as unitary authorities, but there are still 21 county councils.
The government is pushing for a “devolution revolution”, meaning the remaining county councils are being encouraged to merge with other local authorities to become unitary authorities.
So in December last year, the government told county councils they could request to postpone their elections set for 1 May if they were trying to reorganise into one-tier systems.
While 16 county councils requested to postpone, only the eight listed above were successful.
A new spit test for prostate cancer which can be done at home may be better than current testing methods, a study suggests.
Experts have developed a simple saliva test which analyses genetic variants in a man’s DNA, which appears to perform better than the current method for assessing prostate cancer risk.
Currently, the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test is used to check for prostate conditions, including prostate cancer or an enlarged prostate.
Routine testing is not currently available on the NHS, but patients may be offered a PSA test if a GP suspects they have prostate cancer. Men over 50 can ask their GP for a PSA test even if they do not have symptoms.
But experts have said the new saliva test could be used as an additional screening tool, as it reduced the number of false positive results and detected a higher proportion of aggressive cancers than the PSA test.
It could lead to fewer men being sent for unnecessary testing, according to researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
They tested the effectiveness of a new tool they had developed called a polygenic risk score, which uses spit to assess 130 genetic variants known to be associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, which can then determine whether or not a person is at high risk of the disease.
The new spit test for prostate cancer. Pic: PA
Test saved lives of two brothers
Taking part in the trial saved the lives of two brothers.
Dheeresh Turnbull said traditional methods to assess prostate cancer deemed he had a low risk of disease, but the new spit test helped the 71-year-old discover he actually had a life-threatening tumour in his prostate.
After finding out the news, his brother Joel Turnbull also took part in the study and discovered he had an aggressive prostate tumour.
“It’s incredible to think that because of this study two lives have now been saved in my family,” Dheeresh said.
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How the tool was assessed
The brothers were among 6,300 men aged 55 to 69 in the UK who were assessed by the tool as part of the study.
Of those, 745 (12%) were deemed to have a high risk score and were invited to have prostate cancer screening, including an MRI scan and a biopsy.
Prostate cancer was detected in 187 of the 468 who took up the offer, and of those, 103 had cancer that was deemed to be “higher risk”, so treatment was offered.
Of the 187 men, 118 had a PSA level below 3.0ug/L – which is considered “normal” and would typically indicate no further screening is required.
Test could ‘turn the tide on prostate cancer’
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers said cancer “would not have been detected” in 74 of the men using the “diagnostics pathway” currently in use in the UK – which includes a high PSA level and an MRI.
They concluded that for the men with the highest genetic risk, the test falsely identified fewer people with prostate cancer than the PSA test and picked up people with cancer who would have been missed by the PSA test alone.
It detected a higher proportion of aggressive cancers than the PSA test and also accurately identified men with prostate cancer who were missed by an MRI scan.
Professor Ros Eeles, from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: “With this test, it could be possible to turn the tide on prostate cancer.
“We have shown that a relatively simple, inexpensive spit test to identify men of European heritage at higher risk due to their genetic make-up is an effective tool to catch prostate cancer early.
Some 55,000 cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK, with around 12,000 men in the UK dying from the disease annually, according to Cancer Research UK.
It comes after Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested he would support a national prostate cancer screening programme for men at higher risk of disease if it is backed by the evidence. The UK’s National Screening Committee is currently assessing whether or not such a programme should be rolled out.
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