Kenneth Noye

Case record

Kenneth Noye was a British criminal.

Background

Noye was involved in laundering the proceeds of the Brinks Mat robbery in 1983. As detectives hunted the gang, the gold was melted down and sold. A security guard, Anthony Black (a security guard “mole”), was sentenced to six years at the Old Bailey.

During suspicion falling on Noye, he flew to Jersey with a bag containing £50,000 in £50 notes. He also bought 11 gold bars from a bank, took them away in a shopping bag and deposited them in a safe.

In January 1985, a Scotland Yard detective investigating the Brinks Mat robbery was stabbed to death in the grounds of Noye's West Kingsdown home. Noye was charged with murdering John Fordham. The jury at his trial cleared him on a majority verdict, deciding that he acted in self-defence.

Noye returned to court in 1986. After an 11-week trial at the Old Bailey, he was convicted of conspiring to handle gold from the Brinks Mat robbery and conspiring to evade VAT payments. He was sentenced to 14 years and fined £500,000 plus £200,000 costs. One co-defendant, Thomas Adams, was acquitted.

Noye left the UK in 1996. His wife sold a squash club which he owned in Dartford, Kent.

In 1994, Noye was released from prison. The record stated he served a 14-year jail term for handling proceeds from the Brinks Mat bullion heist, and that he was released in 1994 having served 8 years of his sentence.

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. Noye was described as an enthusiastic Freemason and as Master of a lodge in Hammersmith, London.

The offence

In 1996, Noye became involved in an altercation with 21-year-old motorist Stephen Cameron during what was described at the time as a road rage incident on the M25 motorway.

The record stated that, on the morning of Sunday 19 May 1996, the incident ended in death. Stephen Cameron (21, from Swanley, Kent) annoyed the driver of a Land Rover Discovery when his fiancée, who was driving, made a late lane change on a slip road near the junction of the M25 and M20. The other driver got out, confronted Mr Cameron on the verge and stabbed him to death with a nine inch knife before driving off, leaving his 17-year-old fiancée Danielle Cable in shock.

Noye stabbed Stephen Cameron in the heart and liver as they fought on a slip road alongside the M25 motorway in 1996. Noye had been angered by the driving of Mr Cameron's girlfriend, Danielle Cable, who had cut into the lane ahead of his Land Rover. When the vehicles came to a halt he got out and confronted Mr Cameron who died at the scene in the arms of Ms Cable.

The record also stated that Danielle Cable was a witness to the killing.

Investigation

The record included the following investigative actions and developments:

• May 1996: Police investigating the incident track 17,000 Land Rover Discoveries before finding one owned by Anthony Francis, allegedly a cover name for Noye.
• June 1996: Noye flew to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and stayed with his son Kevin, 22. Police there said he left shortly before British police contacted Turkish authorities about the Cameron murder.
• November 1996: At an inquest, Dartford coroner Frank Warriner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on Mr Cameron.
• Throughout 1997 newspapers continued to speculate on Noye's whereabouts, including theories that he had undergone cosmetic surgery and was living in Brazil, was running a timeshare operation in northern Cyprus, or was financing a drug-smuggling ring in Russia.
• July 1998: Police, acting on a tip-off from a holidaymaker, travelled to Spain. British and Spanish detectives kept watch on a £470,000 villa near Cadiz. The reconnaissance operation was backed up by experts from MI5 and the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham. Stephen Cameron's girlfriend Danielle Cable was sent out disguised as a tourist and identified Noye.

Arrest and extradition

The record stated the following events after police located Noye:

• Friday 28 August 1998: 10.24pm: Police arrested Noye at a restaurant in the resort of Barbate as he ate a seafood meal with a female companion.
• 31 August: He appeared in front of magistrates in Cadiz.
• 16 November: Noye promised to fight extradition at a preliminary hearing at the Spanish High Court in Madrid.
• 1 February 1999: His lawyer, Henry Milner, told an extradition hearing in Madrid that Noye's arrest was illegal. He said he could not face a fair trial in the UK because he had already undergone trial by media.
• March: Noye's appeal against extradition was turned down by a panel of judges in Madrid.
• 21 May 1999: He appeared for the first time at Dartford Magistrates' Court with armed police surrounding the building.
• 3 June 1999: He was remanded to Belmarsh prison, south-east London.
• July 1999: Committed for trial at the Old Bailey.

The record also stated that, after the killing, Noye fled to the Costa del Sol in Spain, where he was arrested in 1998 by British police.

Trial

Noye stood trial in 2000 at the Old Bailey.

The record stated that the trial begins under the “highly experience judge, Mr Justice Latham” on 29 March 2000. It also stated that at trial in 2000 Noye pleaded self-defence again, and that this time he was found guilty of murder.

Stephen Cameron's parents were described as hugging each other when the verdict was announced. Outside court, Mr Cameron's father, Ken, described the family's “torment” in the four years since the killing, speaking at a news conference:

"The uncertainty of not knowing whether we would get justice for our son tore us apart," he told a news conference.

The record stated that Detective Superintendent Dennis McGookin praised Danielle Cable's courage throughout the ordeal and inquiry after the trial ended on Friday 14 April 2000:

"She watched her fiancé get stabbed to death when she was only 17," said Detective Superintendent Dennis McGookin. "Her courage in sticking by the investigation and coming to court and giving evidence against a man like Kenneth Noye is somewhat outstanding, and is a great tribute to that young lady," he said.

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

It stated that another eye witness, Alan Decabral, refused police protection and was murdered on October 5, 2000. It stated that no charges had been brought against Noye in connection with that killing.

Sentencing

After conviction, Noye was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The record stated that:

• Noye was sentenced to life in prison on April 14, 2000.
• A man who carried out a “road rage” killing was beginning a life sentence after being convicted of murder at the Old Bailey in London.
• Kenneth Noye, 52, stabbed Stephen Cameron in the heart and liver as they fought on a slip road alongside the M25 motorway in 1996.
• After the killing Noye fled to the Costa del Sol in Spain where he was arrested in 1998 by British police.

Appeals

The record stated:

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

Other details

The record included additional background and biographical details about Noye:

• Noye revelled in his image of a rags to riches businessman. His wealth and luxury lifestyle was described as being funded by crime, including his role in Britain's biggest robbery.
• He was born in Bexleyheath, Kent. The record stated his father ran a post office and his mother managed a dog-racing track.
• He left school at 15.
• He started delivering newspapers and milk, helping in shops, selling programmes at greyhound tracks and had a spell as a newspaper vendor in central London.
• He was sent away for receiving stolen cars.
• At the age of 23 he married Brenda, an engineer's daughter.
• He trained as a process artist in the print trade.
• During the 1970s he worked nightshifts in Fleet Street.
• He set up a haulage company in a run-down caravan behind a garage in West Kingsdown, Kent. He then went into the building trade and then property.
• The record described him making a £300,000 profit from a US trailer park.
• In 1977 he was given an 18-month suspended sentence for receiving and possessing a shotgun.
• In 1980 Noye built a 10-bedroom mock Tudor mansion on 20 acres of land near West Kingsdown.
• He bought a villa in northern Cyprus and a £700,000 yacht.
• On 26 November 1983, six gunmen burst into a warehouse near London's Heathrow Airport, escaping with a fortune in precious metal, jewels and cash. The Brinks Mat bullion robbers took 6,800 gold bars weighing three tons, platinum, diamonds and traveller's cheques. The haul was valued at £26,369,778.
• The record said the Brinks Mat bullion robbers took 6,800 gold bars weighing three tons, platinum, diamonds and traveller's cheques.
• The record stated that the following February, Anthony Black was sentenced to six years at the Old Bailey, and that in December 1984 two of the gang were convicted and given 25-year terms, while a third accused man was cleared.
• It stated suspicion was also falling on Noye in that year after he flew to Jersey with a bag containing £50,000 in £50 notes and bought 11 gold bars from a bank.
• The record stated that Noye was charged with murdering John Fordham, but the jury cleared him on a majority verdict deciding that he acted in self-defence.
• It stated that Noye shouted at the jury:

"I hope you all die of cancer,"

• It stated Noye failed to appeal against his conviction in 2001 and 2004, and that in 2007 he challenged the Criminal Cases Review Commissions decision not to refer his case to the Appeal Court as "legally flawed".
• The record stated that in 1998 Noye was tracked down in Spain and Cameron's 17-year-old girlfriend Danielle Cable was secretly flown out to positively identify him.
• The record stated that Danielle Cable was given a new identity under the witness protection programme.