‘Essex boys’ murderer Jack Whomes could go free within weeks as he continues to protest his innocence 25 years after being jailed for gangland triple-assassination
- Jack Whomes, 57, is attempting to clear his name 25 years after being convicted
- He was convicted of the ‘Essex Boys’ murders along with Michael Steele in 1998
- Tony Tucker, 38, Pat Tate, 37 and Craig Rolfe, 26, were shot in Rettendon, 1995
- Whomes is set to be released with case put to the parole board in next months
- Steele, 76, remains a category A prisoner, and is not currently up for parole
A convicted ‘Essex Boys’ murderer is set to be freed from prison after serving a reduced life sentence of 22 years.
Jack Whomes, 57, is still attempting to clear his name 25 years after being jailed over the shooting of three men who were found dead in a Range Rover near a farm in Rettendon, Essex, in 1995.
His case is to be put to the parole board within months, after his 25 year sentence was reduced by two years in 2018 due to ‘exemplary behaviour’.
While Michael Steele, 76, who was convicted alongside Whomes for the same triple murder remains a category A criminal and is not up for parole, reports The Mirror.
Jack Whomes arrives at the Appeal Court on February 22, 2006 in London. Whomes was jailed for life, with accomplice Michael Steele at the Old Bailey in 1998
Tony Tucker, 38, Pat Tate, 37 and Craig Rolfe, 26, were gunned down with a pump-action shotgun in December 1995 in what is believed to have been a row over drugs.
Just a month earlier the three gangster are said to have given 18-year-old Leah Betts an ecstasy tablet in a Basildon club which led to her death.
The bloodbath scene of the triple murder of the three men down a snow covered farm track in the small village of Rettendon inspired the 2000 Essex Boys movie, starring Sean Bean.
Whomes and Steel were convicted after evidence, which was then lost, was given by their self-professed getaway driver Darren Nicholls.
Steele was jailed in 1998 for the murder of three drug dealers in Rettendon, Essex
Michael Steele, 76, (left) was convicted alongside Jack Whomes (right) for the same triple murder but remains a category A criminal and is not up for parole. Pictured in 2006
After being scrutinised for 30 hours, detectives realised the tape recording Nicholls’ questioning had stopped recording.
This lead Whomes and Steel’s lawyers to claim the get-away story was fabricated, both the convicted murders still maintain they are not responsible for the Essex Boys murders.
Another gangster, London based Billy Jasper, came forward admitting he had been paid £5,000 to take the killer to the scene of the murder – but was never charged.
The infamous killing was made into a film starring Sean Bean, pictured at the premiere in 2000
A spokeswoman for the Parole Board told The Mirror: ‘We can confirm the parole review of Jack Whomes has been referred to the Parole Board.
‘Steele, whose case has not been referred, is a category A prisoner in HMP Full Sutton.’
An application by Whomes to the Criminal Cases Review Commission last year is believed to have contained proposed evidence that Scotland Yard had recorded another gangster saying that he would ‘take out’ the people who supplied Leah Betts with drugs, reports The Mirror.