Kenneth Noye

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kenneth Noye (born 24 May 1947) is a British criminal who was convicted of the 1996 road rage murder of Stephen Cameron.

Noye was involved in laundering the proceeds of the Brinks Mat robbery in 1983. While he was being investigated for his part in the robbery, he stabbed to death a police officer (John Fordham) who was observing Noye from the grounds of his home. Noye was acquitted of murder on the grounds of self-defence, but was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 1986 for handling stolen gold. He was released from prison in 1994, having served 8 years of his sentence.

Two years later, in 1996, Noye became involved in an altercation with 21-year-old motorist Stephen Cameron on the M25 motorway during what was described at the time as a road rage incident, but has also been suggested to have been dispute over a drug deal, Cameron being a small-time drug dealer who owed Noye money. It however suited the purposes of both the prosecution and the defence to not mention this during the trial.^[1]. During the fight, Noye stabbed and killed Cameron with a knife. Noye immediately fled the country, sparking a massive police hunt. In 1998 he was tracked down in Spain, and Cameron's 17-year old girlfriend Danielle Cable, who had witnessed the killing, was secretly flown out to positively identify him. Despite the obvious risks involved, she opted to testify against Noye, who at his trial in 2000 again pleaded self-defence. This time found guilty, he was convicted of murder and given a life sentence. Cable was given a new identity under the witness protection programme, having been praised by police for her courage in giving evidence in the presence of Noye and his associates (another eyewitness, Alan Decabral, refused police protection and was shot dead in his car in Ashford, Kent on October 5, 2000)

In evidence given to a House of Commons Committee in 1996, Noye was said to have been a member of Hammersmith Lodge, a Masonic lodge in London. ^[2]

The trial judge at Noye's trial for murder did not make any recommendation as to how long Noye should spend in prison, and it is unknown whether the Home Secretary or Lord Chief Justice has ever set a minimum term.

Noye failed to appeal against his conviction in 2001 and 2004. In 2007 he challenged the Criminal Cases Review Commission's decision not to refer his case to the Appeal Court as "legally flawed".

On Friday 7 March 2008, Noye took another step toward a fresh legal challenge, when Lord Justice Richards and Mrs Justice Swift granted permission for a one-day judicial review hearing, covering the CCRC's October 2006 decision not to send his case back to the court of appeal. ^[3]

Giovanni di Stefano is amongst those representing him.^[4]