EXCLUSIVE: ESSEX BOYS MURDERS: Michael Steele parole hearing adjourned again with no new date or reason given

Essex Boys triple killer Michael Steele has hade his bid for freedom dashed again after his parole hearing was adjourned for a second time.

The 81-year-old was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years in 1998 with Jack Whomes, 62, after they were convicted of the murders of drug dealers Pat Tate, 37, Tony Tucker, 38, and Rolfe, 26, in 1995.

The three were found shot dead in a Range Rover on an isolated snowy track in Rettendon, near Basildon, Essex on the morning of December 7.

Steele's current parole hearing started last May (2023), with a decision expected in July, but the case was adjourned and resumed on May 9.

However, the hearing did not conclude and it has again been adjourned to an unknown date, with no reason for the delay released, Essex News and Investigations can reveal.

A Parole Board spokesman said: "I can see an adjournment notice has been issued now and there is no new date for the adjourned oral hearing as yet. I’m afraid I can’t really go into the reasons for adjournments but it’s often that the panel required further information."

The notorious gangland murders spawned a series of gangster flicks, including the Rise of the Footsoldier series and the 2000 film Essex Boys starring Sean Bean.

Both Whomes and Steele have always insisted they are innocent, but a series of appeals and applications to the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC) have been unsuccessful.

Once the parole hearing resumes, iIf his release is not approved, he could also be moved to an open prison if it is deemed to be safe.

Whomes was released in 2021, but has never spoken of the case, with his lawyers insisting he is under strict licence conditions not to speak to the press.

In March we revealed that the CCRC has begun a fresh look after receiving an extensive report by a team of former murder detectives who spent four years looking at the case concluded there were major disclosure failings and it was mired in corruption.

Former Met Police DCI Dave McKelvey, who led the review for his private investigation firm TM-Eye, is convinced Steele is innocent.

He said: "There has been a major miscarriage of justice and an 81-year-old man, who remains a category A prisoner, should be released. My view is they keep delaying this in the hope that he simply dies in prison, which would be a disgrace."

Bernard O'Mahoney, a former associate of Tucker's, turned author, who previously campaigned for Whomes and Steele, insisting they were innocent, now says they are guilty.

Dean Kingham, Steele's laweyer, said before the case resumed on May 9: "He is soon to be 82. It is assessed he is not a risk unless he reverts to a criminal lifestyle. He meets the Board’s statutory release test in that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that he remains confined. The Ministry of Justice are seeking to justify him remaining in closed conditions to access personality work for “personality traits” which we are arguing has no relevant to his current or future risk."