ESSEX BOYS MURDERS: Michael Steele two-day fight for parole started today

CONVICTED Essex Boys triple killer Michael Steele began a two-day parole hearing today.

Steele is fighting for releases or move to an open prison 25 years after he was jailed for the notorious Rettendon Range Rover murders of drug dealers Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe in December 1995.

Tate, 37, Tucker, 38, and Rolfe, 26, were shot dead in a Range Rover on an isolated track in Rettendon on the night of December 6 1995.

Their bodies were found the morning in what became the country's most notorious gangland assassinations and was the subject of several movies.

Three years later Steele, 79, (above left) and Jack Whomes, 60, (right) were convicted of the murders on the evidence of supergrass Darren Nicholls, who claimed to be their getaway driver after his arrest over a cannabis importation in May 1996.

There was no forensics linking Whomes and Steele to the murder scene and phone evidence police said tied them to the scene was later discredited.

Both men protest their innocence, with Whomes released on parole in March 2021.

Steele has failed in previous parole bids for release.

A three-part Sky documentary shown last month followed ex Met detective private investigators from TM-Eye as they reviewed the evidence in the case.

TM-Eye boss Dave McKelvey, a former DCI, is now convinced of their innocence and alleges to have proof that supergrass Darren Nicholls lied during his evidence and the case should be reinvestigated by an independent police force.

He said: "Steele remains a Category A prisoner since his arrest in May 1996, locked up in a cell 23 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no access to the real world.

"There is no doubt in the minds of the investigating team and many of those who follow the case, that Steele and Whomes are innocent of the murders.

"Michael Steele deserves his freedom. The public deserve to know the Truth for the sake of Justice in the UK."

'Bernard O'Mahoney, a former associate of Tucker's through door security work, previously campaigned for several years that the pair were innocent.

However, he now insists they are guilty and claims the Sky Documentary has produced no new evidence that has not previously been ruled out by the Criminal Case Review Commission and during appeals.

A new documentary by Revelation Films, that claims to have new evidence that supports Nicholls' account is due to be released and. Mr O'Mahoney have been interviewed for this production.

A decision on Parole for Steele could take two weeks or longer.