New inquiry into 'Range Rover' murders

The three were gunned down in their Range Rover

A fresh inquiry has begun into the murder of three drug dealers in an isolated county lane in Essex nine years ago.

The new investigation into the killings, nicknamed the Rettendon Murders, is being carried out for the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Pat Tate, 37, Craig Rolfe, 26, and Tony Tucker, 38, were shot dead with a double-barrelled shotgun as they sat in a Range Rover in a country lane on 7 December 1995.

In January 1998 mechanic Jack Whomes, 41, and engineer Michael Steele, 60, nicknamed the Rettendon Two, were convicted of their murders and each sentenced to three life terms end of a four-and-a-half-month trial.

Key witness

The two have always protested their innocence and claim they are the unwitting victims of a miscarriage of justice.

Detective Superintendent Steve Read is heading up the new inquiry on behalf of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).

The new investigation is expected to centre on whether the key witness at the trial had been paid for the rights to his story by a television company.

The inquiry is to help the CCRC to decide whether or not to send the case to the Court of Appeal.