07/12/07 - Press Release on behalf of Michael John Steele
Christopher Lawrence Bowen Solicitor for Michael John Steele

PRESS RELEASE ON BEHALF OF MICHAEL JOHN STEELE
RE: 12TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE RANGE ROVER MURDERS, RETTENDON, ESSEX, ENGLAND.
(EMBARGO LASTS UNTIL 05.00 ON 7TH DECEMBER 2007)

Today, it is 12 years to the date, since the discovery in Rettendon of the blue Range Rover containing the bodies of Patrick Tate, Anthony Tucker and Craig Rolfe.

During the trial (01/09/97 to 20/01/98), the prosecution claimed that two members of the public discovered the Range Rover at about 8 a.m.

The jury never heard that at 6.30 a.m. on 7th December 1995, Detective Superintendent David Bright of Essex Police received a telephone call from a Detective Constable then serving on the Drug Squad informing him that three men had been found shot dead in a Range Rover in Rettendon and that it was a gangland style killing.

This information was recorded in a witness statement provided by David Bright to Hertfordshire Police (over 6 years after the end of the trial during the first Criminal Cases Review Commission review of the case). The failure of the prosecuting authorities to disclose this information prior to the trial (in accordance with their obligations) misled the jury about how the police first learned of the murders.

If the three deceased were not under surveillance on 6th and 7th December 1995, how is it that Superintendent Bright knew of the murders approximately one and a half hours prior to the two witnesses who the jury were told discovered the Range Rover at about 8 a.m.?

A number of pertinent questions need to be answered urgently. They include:

1. Who really first discovered the bodies of Messrs Tate, Tucker and Rolfe?
2. When?
3. In what circumstances?
4. Why was it that the scene was not already sealed off by police before 8 a.m.?
5. Which Essex Police Drug Squad officer telephoned David Bright?
6. Why was Superintendent Bright’s knowledge of this call never revealed to the defence prior to trial?

Christopher Lawrence Bowen Solicitor for Michael John Steele