Michael Steele: Man convicted of 'Essex Boys' murders to be released from prison after 27 years
Michael Steele, who is now in his 80s, was jailed for life in 1998 alongside Jack Whomes at the Old Bailey for the murders of Patrick Tate, 37, Tony Tucker, 38, and Craig Rolfe, 26.
The men were shot dead at point-blank range in a Range Rover on an isolated farm track at Rettendon, Essex, in December 1995 in what prosecutors said was a row over a drug deal.
The gangland executions, also known as the Rettendon Murders or the Range Rover Murders, inspired the 2000 film Essex Boys, starring Sean Bean, as well as The Rise Of The Footsoldier franchise.
All three of the victims were known to police. Mr Tucker ran security for Raquels, the nightclub where Leah Betts had taken the ecstasy tablet that led to her death less than a month before the murders.
Steele and Whomes maintained their innocence following their convictions, based in part on the evidence of "supergrass" Darren Nicholls, who said he had been the getaway driver.
But their appeals were rejected and in 2006 Lord Justice Kay said there was no "element of unsafety" relating to the original convictions of both defendants.
The case has also been reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and the decision was made in January 2023 not to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal.
Whomes was released from jail in 2021 on strict licence conditions.
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South Wales Argus
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Daily Mirror
a day ago
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Lucy Letby: Eight things we've learned about killer nurse's life behind bars
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Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Stoke Newington shooting: 16-year bloody gang war behind hit that wounded girl, 9
We catalogue a string of murders dating back to 2009 as a detective warns that 'the tensions now have spiralled beyond any drug disputes and it's just an ongoing hatred between the two groups' The bloody gangland feud that left a young girl with a bullet in her brain has seen at least a dozen gun deaths over the last 16 years, the Mirror can reveal. They include the murder of all three of the brothers who led the Tottenham Turks gang and a string of family members belonging to the rival Hackney Bombers group. It comes after a leading member of the gang targeted in the shooting was gunned down earlier this month in an attack that a source suspects is "part of the same war". We have catalogued the brutal violence after drug dealer Javon Riley, 33, was today found guilty of helping a gunman to carry out an attack that left a nine-year-old girl fighting for her life. Riley, from Tottenham, north London, was convicted at the Old Bailey of three charges of attempted murder and a charge of causing grievous bodily harm to the nine-year-old girl. Three men in the target group were hit by separate shots. Kenan Aydogdu, 45, Mustafa Kiziltan, 38, and Nasser Ali, 43, all survived the attack. The shooting, at the Evin restaurant in Dalston, north east London, was part of a battle between the Kurdish Turks, who once dominated the heroin trade to Britain, that began in 2009. Speaking outside court, Det Chief Insp Ben Dalloway said of the violence: "It's more personal now, it's about getting revenge rather than attacking someone because they are dealing drugs in your area." An attack on Kemal Armagan, who has 13 convictions, is said to have sparked a murderous feud in January 2009. Armagan, a leading member of the Hackney Bombers, was beaten up in the Manor Club in Finsbury Park, north London. He is now wanted for the murder of shopkeeper Ahmet Paytak, 50, who was shot in Holloway, north London, two months later. Both Mr Paytak and his son, who was hit in the leg, were "truly in the wrong place at the wrong time", the Old Bailey heard. The gunman was hired by Armagan, who was involved in a deadly feud with the Tottenham Turks, the jury was told. The rider of a motorcycle used in the attack, Michael James, was convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence. Hitman Ricardo Dwyer, 26, of Hackney, East London, also got life. Armagan, who "cannot at present be found", had been shot and wounded two months earlier, said prosecutor Ed Brown KC. Izzet Eren survived after he was shot in Tottenham later that year. The following month Tottenham Turk Oktay Erbasli was shot dead in front of his five-year-old son. Erbasli, 23, was in a Range Rover and had stopped at the junction of Cambridge Road and The Roundway in Tottenham when a biker pulled up beside him and opened fire. He was hit in the head in front as his son looked on. Cem Duzgun was the next victim, blasted in the head, body, arms and legs with a Mac 11 submachine gun as he played a game of pool with his friends at Clapton Football Club in Hackney, east London. The Old Bailey later heard that Mr Duzgan was shot 11 times in revenge, though he was not thought to be the intended target. The attack's mastermind, leading Tottenham Boy Yusuf Arslan, was jailed for a minimum of 33 years for the murder. On 1 February 2012 the head of one of the families involved, Kemal Armagan's brother Ali, 32, was shot dead as he sat in his custom-built Audi A8 outside Turnpike Lane underground station. Kemal Eren, a cousin of Izzet Eren, fled the UK while wanted for the murder. He was shot and paralysed in Elbistan, southern Turkey, shortly afterwards and is now known as "no fingers" due to injuries he suffered to his hand during the attack. Kemal Eren is now believed to lead the organisation and is suspected of being involved in ordering the Evin restaurant shooting. In April 2013, Izzet's brother Zafer, then the leader of the Tottenham Turks, was shot dead on his doorstep by a hitman known as 'Freddy", nicknamed after Freddy Krueger, from the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street. Baytullah Gunduz, a member of the Bombers, was later cleared of recruiting the gunman. It was Gunduz who was believed to be the main target of the Evin restaurant attack. After the death of his older brother, Izzet Eren took over the leadership of the Tottenham Turks organised crime group. Sources claim Turkish police were told in 2014 Eren flew from London to kill Ibrahim Aslan but murdered his nephew Ilhan Kabala instead when he could not find his original target. Mr Kabala was shot dead outside a bar in Bodrum, Turkey, in 2014. Aslan had apparently been tipped off and fled four days before the shooting . His involvement in the violence can be traced back to 2003 when, at 21, he tried to shoot dead a Turkish man at a petrol station in Tottenham, North London. Aslan was jailed for 13 years for attempted murder alongside Bombers founder Abdullah Baybasin and Erdal Ozmen, who was murdered earlier this month. Cafer Aslan, 54, believed to have been Aslan's older brother, was shot dead in Enfield, North London, in August 2017. The following February, Aslan's nephew Bulent Kabala, 41, was hit by a blue Ford Transit while driving in nearby Cockfosters and shot four times. In December 2015 armed police thwarted a bid to free Izzet Eren from a custody van outside Wood Green Crown Court, North London. Eren was serving 14 years after he was caught with a machine gun while allegedly on his way to carry out a hit in revenge for the murder of his brother. Jermaine Baker was shot dead by a police marksman as he attempted to free the gang leader. Eren's only surviving brother, Huseyin, was killed in Turkey in 2020 while on a family holiday in the southern city of Elbistan. The 24-year-old was shot dead in front of wife and child. Izzet Eren was himself gunned down in July last year in Moldova in a suspected revenge attack for the Evin restaurant shooting. Kemal Armagan is suspected of killing his long-time rival with the help of British former solicitor Toper Hassan. Hassan is currently fighting extradition to Moldova. Aslan, 40, posted a chilling message last July hours after Eren was shot. Below popping champagne corks emojis, he warned: "If you are my friend you stay alive, if you are my enemy you will be fd." Armagan was arrested in Turkey last year where he is wanted for another murder. The latest suspected victim of the battle was Eldal Ozmen, 45, who was gunned down earlier this month a short walk from the Eren restaurant, amid fears it was a revenge attack. Ozmen was part of the Hackney Bombers and detectives are now understood to be investigating whether the murder was retaliation for the killing of Izzet Eren. A law enforcement source told the Mirror: "I think it's the same war." But the Metropolitan Police said that the motive for the latest murder "remains unclear". No arrests have been made. CCTV shows the suspected gunmen escaping in a black Kia sport's car with the help of a getaway driver who calmly stops at traffic lights seconds after the shooting. A friend of the dead man said: "Someone shot him in the back then came back and kicked him and shot him another two times. When they left, they waited 25 seconds at the traffic lights. They didn't hide their face, no masks, nothing." Kicking the victim after shooting him would appear to signify that this was a crime motivated by emotion rather than money. Mr Dalloway said: "I think historically drugs and firearms have been what fuels this violence but the tensions now have spiralled beyond any drug disputes and it's just an ongoing hatred between the two groups."
