Justice watchdogs may have “problems” upholding the conviction of Essex Boys killer Michael Steele – nearly 30 years after Britain’s most notorious gangland execution.
An independent psychologist has told the Parole Board she “would not be surprised if the Criminal Cases Review Commission found problems with [Steele’s] conviction”. The CCRC are currently assessing a dossier of evidence which the 82-year-old hopes may clear him of the brutal 1995 triple execution.
Details of the expert – appointed by Steele’s legal team and referred to only as “Dr C” – emerged as the justice secretary lost a last-ditch bid to block his release. Steele has refused to accept his guilt for blasting drug dealers Patrick Tate, 36, Tony Tucker, 38, and Craig Rolfe, 26, dead with a pump action shotgun after they were lured to a farm in their Range Rover.
And Parole Board documents uncovered by the Mirror reveal Steel maintains “the killing was organised by another criminal and a corrupt police officer”. Ministers last week failed in an application to keep Steele behind bars for the brutal murders on a farm in Rettendon, Essex, with accomplice Jack Whomes.
Rejecting Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s bid to block his release from jail, the Parole Board’s Jeremy Roberts QC said: “[Steele] has always denied any involvement in the murders. He says that the killing was organised by another criminal and a corrupt police officer.”
And the document also lays bare Steele’s life behind bars, in which he is said to have been an “exemplary” inmate, except for on one occasion when he was caught with a kettle. A 2021 report stated: “He has only ever had two proven adjudications on this sentence, the most recent one being in January 2021 for having an unauthorised item in his possession, a kettle for which he was given a caution.
“His custodial behaviour is almost always compliant and he is not problematic to the general smooth running of the establishment. He was given one negative entry in this reporting period over something trivial. The establishment’s Security department informs me that they have no current concerns over [Steele].”
Despite his impeccable behaviour, the prison authorities have refused to downgrade his status and he has spent his entire sentence in maximum security conditions. All three victims were shot in the head, while Tate was also blasted in the stomach. Whomes and Steele were jailed in 1998 after being convicted of murder, with former friend-turned-informant Darren Nicholls supplying vital evidence to send them down.
But while Whomes was freed in 2021 after his sentence was reduced for good behaviour, Steele was kept behind bars. In February, the Parole Board said he could be freed after 27 years. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood sought to intervene, claiming the decision was “legally irrational”.
But the Parole Board said it cannot see why Steele cannot be freed. The Criminal Case Review Commission is currently assessing a dossier of evidence which Steele hopes will clear him of the murders. In a newly released paper, the Parole Board panel said: “The panel had regard to the seriousness of the index offending and the prior pattern of criminal offending. [Steele] at the time of the index murders was a career criminal.
“It accepted the submission of [the Justice Secretary] that [Steele] had shown himself to be a sophisticated offender with a propensity to commit violence (or organise violence) of the utmost severity and that the index offences were particularly grievous involving numerous victims who were lured to a remote farmhouse by [Steele] indicating a predatory motivation linked to drug dealing and money.
“The severe impact on the victims’ families is well documented. Nonetheless the panel had to consider whether [the Respondent’s] risk was now sufficiently reduced after so many years in custody to allow safe release into the community. The panel was mindful throughout of the statutory test for release with its emphasis on the protection of the public.”
It concluded: “The panel accordingly concluded that it was no longer necessary for the protection of the public that [Steele] remain confined.”
Steele was 55 when he was found guilty of murder and conspiring to import drugs into the UK. His minimum prison term was set at 23 years, which expired in 2019. Lawyers for both Steele and Whomes made unsuccessful attempts to overturn their convictions at the Court of Appeal in 2006, 2013 and 2016. Police previously said the case was “exhaustively examined” and there was no fresh evidence to dispute the original verdicts.
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