Kenneth Noye: Notorious M25 killer to be moved to open prison

Justice Secretary accepts recommendation from parole board despite plea from victim's family

Kenneth Noye, who is now 70, pictured some time before his 1996 conviction (Kent Police)

A notorious killer who had extensive links to organised crime including an infamous gold heist is to be moved to an open prison.

Kenneth Noye, 70, is serving a life sentence for stabbing 21-year-old Stephen Cameron to death in 1996 but will be transferred to a facility allowing the potential for temporary release and home leave.

Mr Cameron’s family were dismayed at the move, which was approved by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) following a recommendation from the parole board.

Ken Cameron, the victim’s father, has raised fears Noye will use privileges like visits to the shop to attempt escape. In an open letter to the Justice Secretary, he had pleaded for the Government to block the recommended transfer, saying the prospect was distressing his family.

“He has never shown any remorse,” Mr Cameron wrote in the letter published by the Mirror. “A leopard cannot change its spots and Noye should not be allowed out of prison while he is alive.”

Noye is expected to be moved to an open prison within weeks after Justice Secretary David Lidington accepted the parole board’s recommendation, although a spokesperson for the MoJ said the exact time and location could not be confirmed for operational reasons. “Public protection is our top priority and transfers to open conditions are made after a thorough, expert risk assessment carried out by the independent parole board,” he added.

The board said it was not directing Noye's release last month, but recommended that he be transferred to "open conditions".

It had made the same recommendation in September 2015 but the move was blocked by Michael Gove during his term as Justice Secretary. At the time the parole board said Noye had “made considerable progress during his sentence into changing his attitudes” and that the risk of him absconding was "inherently unlikely" due to his age.

It also emerged that the prisoner himself had concerns over the prospect of being targeted by fellow inmates in an open prison.

Earlier this year, he won a High Court challenge against Mr Gove’s refusal, which his counsel argued was "unlawful and irrational".

Born in Bexleyheath, Noye became involved in crime as a teenager and was convicted of theft and receiving stolen goods, while acting as a police informer, and was allegedly linked to corrupt officers.

Following the Brink’s-Mat robbery in 1983, when £26m worth of gold bullion, diamonds and cash was stolen from a London trading estate, Noye was involved in laundering proceeds and melting down the gold.

Brian Reader, who was jailed for plotting with Noye, went on to mastermind the Hatton Garden heist and was jailed for six years and three months.

Reader was present at Noye's home when he stabbed to death an undercover police officer found in his garden in 1985.

During his trial, Noye claimed he killed Detective Constable John Fordham in self-defence – a claim he attempted to use year’s later after murdering Cameron – and was acquitted. But he was found guilty in of handling some of the stolen gold and jailed until his release in 1994.

His altercation with Cameron, who was on his way to the shops with his fiancée at the time, came just two years later on the M25 in Kent. The court heard that Noye and Mr Cameron argued after a collision, with Noye producing a knife from his car and stabbing his unarmed victim to death on a slip road.

He fled the UK following the murder and reached Spain with the help of another criminal connection. He was tracked down following a substantial operation by British police and GCHQ, being arrested in 1998 and convicted of murder two years later.

Noye was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years, being initially held in high-security HMP Whitemoor, then category B Lowdham Grange, and category C HMP Wayland, which has seen a rise in violence including assaults on officers.

His victim’s family have campaigned against the reduced security measures at each stage, claiming that Noye remains “desperate to get out of jail”.