Road rage killer Kenneth Noye wins open prison challenge

Kenneth Noye, the road rage killer, has moved a step closer to freedom after winning a legal challenge that could see him moved to an open prison.

A High Court judge overturned a ministerial decision to block the 69-year-old murderer being transferred to a less restricted jail.

Noye was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum tariff of 16-years after being found guilty of stabbing 21-year-old electrician Stephen Cameron to death in an attack on the M25 in Kent in 1996.

Michael Gove, then Justice Secretary, in 2015 rejected a recommendation from the Parole Board that Noye be transferred to open conditions.

A judge has now quashed Mr Gove’s decision, after Noye’s lawyers argued the minister had “failed to give proper or adequate weight to the recommendation of the Parole Board”.

It will be now up to the current Justice Secretary, Liz Truss, to make a fresh ruling on the issue.

Noye's QC argued at a hearing in January that the rejection decision was "unlawful and irrational" as Noye now posed less of a risk.

Edward Fitzgerald QC, for Noye, said the Parole Board panel "concluded that the benefits of a move to open conditions outweighed the risk of such a move, and they found that the claimant's risk had significantly reduced" since the killing of Mr Cameron.

He added: "They noted that he had made significant progress in changing his attitudes and tackling his behavioural problems."

Mr Fitzgerald said the Parole Board had made their decision after considering Noye’s criminal history and links to the world of serious organised crime, as well as the risk he would abscond.

He told the court: "They concluded on the basis of all the evidence presented that it was inherently unlikely that the claimant would throw away the opportunity for release on licence in the foreseeable future in return for a life on the run in a foreign land."

Noye, was already one of the country's most feared gangsters, when he stabbed 21-year-old Mr Cameron to death on a slip road of the M25 in front of his horrified girlfriend.

He had previously been acquitted of the murder of undercover police officer, John Fordham, after claiming he had mistaken him for an intruder and was acting in self-defence.

But he served 14 years in jail for his part in the 1983 Brink’s-Mat bullion robbery.

After killing Mr Cameron, Noye fled the country until a major manhunt traced him to Spain and he was extradited.

When Noye was initially jailed for life there was no minimum tariff set by the judge, but the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett later recommended that he serve at least 16-years.

Tom Weisselberg QC, for the Justice Secretary, had told the court Mr Gove personally rejected the Parole Board’s recommendation because of his doubts Noye had reformed.

He said: "He was rightly concerned about a decision which would have the effect of undermining public confidence."

The decision not to transfer was made as the result of a number of factors, the court heard, including Mr Gove's "doubts as to the credibility of the claimant's claims" that he had "changed his attitude to violence", the "risk of absconding posed by the claimant's links to Spain", the "risk of violence linked to the claimant's ego and desire to be in control", and his "use of excessive violence".

Mr Justice Lavender, handing down his ruling yesterday (FRI), said: "It will be for the current Secretary of State to take a fresh decision whether or not to transfer the claimant to an open prison."

Mr Cameron's family have said in the past they will fight Noye's move to an open prison and believe their son's killer should stay in jail for life.

Mr Cameron's father, Ken, said when the Parole Board first made its decision: "We would like to see justice in this case. I think life should mean life. Our son hasn't got a life and our life will never be the same."

Noye is currently thought to be in HM Prison The Mount, near Hemel Hempstead, Herts