Wrong time at the right place
There is also new evidence from a mobile phone expert which appears to undermine Nicholls' version of events. Whomes called Nicholls at 6.44pm. Nicholls claimed this was Whomes ringing him from Workhouse Lane to say "come and pick us up" after the murders. Whomes said he rang from the car park of a nearby pub to confirm he had picked up Nicholls' broken-down car.

Mobile investigation
David Bristowe, an independent forensic scientist, conducted a series of tests for the first time using Whomes' own mobile phone. Of the 20 calls made from the pub car park more than a third connected via the Hockley transmitter, which he is known to have used, but none from Workhouse Lane did so.

Mr Bristowe told BBC News Online: "The new tests suggest Jack Whomes was telling the truth, and Darren Nicholls wasn't." Timing was key to the case. The pathologist did not provide a time of death so Essex Police based their theory about the deaths on the fact that Tate, Tucker and Rolfe made no calls on their mobile phones after 7pm.

Shots at midnight
But by the same reasoning Steele and Whomes could have been dead after 7pm themselves, for their phones were not used either. Jasper claimed the shootings took place late at night and two independent witnesses both heard gunshots at around midnight. The later time of death would at least go some way towards explaining why the Range Rover was not iced over when it was found by farmer Peter Theobald and his friend Ken Jiggins at 8am on 7 December.

Their own vehicle had been left outside all night and was completely iced over. What is not in doubt is that the man responsible for the Rettendon murders must have been an expert marksman - all three victims were gunned down in seconds. At the trial Nicholls claimed Whomes was the "shooter", with Steele only joining in to finish off the three men.

But Whomes' brother, John, told BBC News Online: "Jack is frightened of guns, ever since he was hit by a clay pigeon trap when he was a kid. My dad used to own guns but Jack never had one. He couldn't have done this." Mr D, on the other hand, was a former soldier and a crack shot who won several regimental prizes.

In October 1997 Mr D's friend Jesse Gale was killed when he collided head-on with another car on the M20 in Kent. Gale was wanted for questioning by a number of police forces but a friend of the family denied Gale was connected to the Rettendon murders. She said: "He was no Kenny Noye. He was a lovable villain with a bad temper and there is no way he had anything to do with those murders. They're clutching at straws."

The whereabouts of Jasper and Mr D are unknown but as Mr Bowen told BBC News Online: "It's not my job to prove who carried out these killings. My job is simply to prove my clients did not."

'Not a shred of evidence'
Whomes' brother John told BBC News Online: "If Jack had gone there to shoot those three men he would not take Nicholls and Steele. He would have taken me. We did everything together." Steele's partner, Jackie Street, told BBC News Online there was "not a shred of evidence that supports the convictions".