| Essexboys
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22/03/05 - Jack Whomes, one
of two men convicted of the Essex Range Rover murders
of Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe, may be granted
bail
Author MORRIS, Steven.
newcriminologist
For the past six years there has been much controversy
over the convictions of two men, believed to be innocent.
In January 1998, Jack Whomes and Michael 'Mick' Steele
were jailed for life for the notorious December 1995
Rettendon triple murder of Essex drug dealers, Pat Tate,
Tony Tucker, and Craig Rolfe.
The burly trio were blasted to death in Tucker's Range
Rover after being lured down a lonely Essex farm road.
Based primarily on evidence provided by police supergrass,
Darren Nichols in May 1996, it was accepted at the trial
of Whomes and Steele that the pair had engineered the
homicides due to a recent feud over narcotics distribution.
It was alleged that Steele, acting in a friendly capacity
had climbed into the vehicle as it slowed to a halt
on the remote snow-covered Rettendon farm track and
guided the unsuspecting men to their deaths. As the
vehicle stopped at a closed farm gate, Whomes is supposed
to have stepped out of the trees and decimated all three
victims with a shotgun.
On Tuesday, Whomes, who was jailed for life for the
murders, is hoping to be granted bail.
On 21 December last year, Whomes and Steele, had their
case referred back to the Court of Appeal. Many want
justice to be done and the two men finally released.
Whomes, understandably, is very conscious of the amount
of time he has spent in prison.
"Tuesday will be my 3,235th day in prison,"
Whomes told his mother on the eve of his bail hearing.
Pam Whomes and her family are clinging desperately to
his release on bail from Whitemoor Prison, in Cambridgeshire,
and will not have to spend a 3,236th day in jail for
a crime they are certain he did not commit.
Whomes was arrested nine years ago for the murders
of Tate, Tucker and Rolfe. He went on trial in 1997
and along with his co-defendant, Mick Steele, was jailed
for life in January 1998.
In December 2004 their case was referred back to the
Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission
(CCRC), partly as a result of new evidence which appears
to undermine the main prosecution witness, supergrass
Darren Nicholls.
The three slain men were themselves no strangers to
extreme violence. Tony Tucker had become quite a force
to be reckoned with in Essex. A bodybuilder and purveyor
of a platoon of doormen throughgout Essex and London
clubland, he also organized security for the former
middleweight world champion, Nigel Benn. The two men
were also close friends. Tucker, however had come to
find the drug business a lot more lucrative, and aligned
with Patrick Tate and Craig Rolfe embarked on a path
that they had hoped would lead to them becoming major
drug barons.
Together the three steroid-enhanced thugs were a most
fearsome bunch and had been becoming increasingly violent
in their rapid ascension of the criminal ladder.
Natural bullies, they had metamorphosed into cocaine
and amphetamine-fueled warmongers who would frequently
beat and rob rival dealers in their quest for supremacy
in the drugs world. Tucker was the man behind the lethal
'Apple' ecstasy tablet that led to the tragic death
of Essex teenager, Leah Betts.
Along with battering and maiming anyone who got in
their way, Tucker and Rolfe are also suspected of murdering
a man, Kevin Whittaker, by forcing him to overdose on
massive quantities of narcotics after it was perceived
by them that they had been duped on a deal.
As the trio spiralled farther out of control, it is
believed by many that they finally threatened the wrong
people. In fact, rather than Whomes and Steele, a well
known East London Gang are widely accepted as being
responsible for the triple execution.
Wensley Clarkson, a best-selling British author, speculates
in his book ‘Killer On The Road' that culpability
for the murders may even rest with notorious gangland
figure, Kenneth Noye. It is understood that Noye met
Pat Tate whilst the two were serving time in Swaleside
Prison, on the island of Shippey, Kent. Tate the wannabe
Gangster was immediately in awe of Noye, who had acquired
his infamy in large part because of the role he played
in the Brinks Mat gold bullion robbery in November 1983.
Noye was able to secrete a large amount of the stolen
gold, which to this day has never been recovered. In
1985 Noye went on to stab to death an undercover policeman,
DC John Fordham, who had been surveilling Noye's home
in Kent.
Acquitted of the murder, Noye was ultimately jailed
in the Brinks affair. It was while Noye was completing
his sentence at Swaleside that Tate introduced himself,
offering his services as a bodyguard and grasping the
attentions of Kenny Noye with his tales of building
an empire on the distribution of Ecstasy tablets. Ever
the opportunist, Noye was instantly attracted to the
proposal and the pair agreed to meet up on the outside
and go into business.
According to a one time friend of Tate and Tucker,
Bernard O'Mahoney, he personally accompanied Tate to
a brief meeting with Noye at a lay by near Kent. Cash
and drugs changed hands and Tate, who had been most
excited about introducing O'Mahoney to his infamous
'friend' was most disappointed when Noye turned down
his offer of a drink after the exchange, instead hopping
back in his car and driving off.
O'Mahoney, who went on to write the excellent book
'So This Is Ecstasy?' later to become 'Essex Boys',
recounted Tate's disappointment with his hero, Noye's
sudden departure. Kenneth Noye was all business it seemed,
and Noye was legendary for his short fuse and swift
delivery of retribution against those who crossed him
on a deal.
In his book, Clarkson makes a very plausible case for
Tate "stitching Noye up" on an ecstasy consignment
and goes on to opine that Noye and his contacts may
well have ordered the three up-and-coming gangsters
to be executed.
Finally jailed for life for the road rage murder of
19 year-old Stephen Cameron in 1995, Noye has never
spoken publicly about the Range Rover murders, and he
has never been charged in the crimes
Whoever murdered Tony Tucker, Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe,
Mrs Whomes knows it was not her son. She vividly remembers
the day Jack was convicted.
"When the verdict came through it was devastating.
The kids cried for two days."
Whomes' children Jack - known as JJ - and Lucy are
now 19 and 18 respectively. His confinement has caused
him to miss a large portion of their childhoods. Whomes
is desperate to return to his family.
Unable to read or write upon entering jail, Whomes
self-preservation depended on learning these skills.
He taught himself both by studying the transcripts of
his trial.
He had pored over these documents for months, determined
to prove that he had been "fitted up" by Darren
Nicholls, a man he says he barely knew.
The CCRC spent almost four years examining the case.
A lot of focus has been on the character of Nicholls,
a registered police informer who agreed to give evidence
against Steele and Whomes in return for special consideration,
after he himself was caught red-handed driving a car
loaded with 10kg (22lb) of cannabis.
In light of his evidence he received a considerably
reduced sentence and in actuality, served no prison
time, apart from that which he had spent on remand.
He also profited quite comfortably from his efforts
in co-writing a book about the case, 'Bloggs 19', with
journalist Tony Thompson. Nicholls was also paid by
TV company LWT for his role in a TV documentary which
never actually saw the light of day.
Filming of the programme included footage of the inside
Nicholls' police cell and was underway during the trial
of Steele and Whomes.
Essex Police says it knew nothing of these payments
and insists they did not influence Nicholls' evidence
or make any difference to the convictions.
Mrs Whomes said: "Jack said to me yesterday that
it will not be the end of the world if he doesn't get
bail.
"He said many battles were fought and lost before
the war is won, and he said at the end of the day he
knows he's going to be free and his name will be cleared."
For the definitive story of the triple slaying and the
violent drug world they inhabited, 'The New Criminologist'
recommends 'Essex Boys' by Bernard O'Mahoney. A link for
his web site can be found above. |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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