DEATHBED CONFESSION RAISES DOUBTS

New Essex Boys killings shocker

- by PATRICK HILL

A PHONE engineer claimed on his deathbed that police threatened him with prison unless he edited call data that was used to convict two men of the Essex Boys murders.

Lee Shaw, who was a witness in the controversial prosecutions of Michael Steele and Jack Whomes, allegedly made the admission while dying of cancer.

His letter written last year was given to a private investigation firm, which believes Steele and Whomes were victims of a miscarriage of justice following the killings, 30 years ago today.

The new evidence will further fuel speculation the pair, who have since been released from jail, were wrongly convicted of the killings of drug dealers Tony Tucker, Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe.

The trio were found dead in a Range Rover on a farm track in Rettendon, Essex, on December 7, 1995, after being shot dead the previous day.

Former police officer turned private investigator David McKelvey, whose outfit TM Eye has spent the past five years examining the case, said of Mr Shaw's letter: "The significance can't be understated. He's a very important witness in relation to the telephone data.

"He made three statements to police at the time and, importantly, from our perspective, we have real concerns about the telephone data and the manipulation of that data.

"The telephone data, clearly, based on that from what we understand, has been corrupted, manipulated."

Fellow investigator Albert Patrick, an ex-detective chief superintendent, now wants Essex Police to give TM Eye access to 124 crates of evidence in the case.

He said: "We've been saying from day one that there's something not right about the cell phone evidence."

Mr Shaw worked for Telewest, in Southend, Essex, which produced some of the evidence in the notorious case.