Could the Rettendon Two be a potential MoJ.

[Holly Goodhead]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dOm4waNyvVA

Det Supt Ivan Dibley seems to think Rolfe, Tate and Tucker (Essex Boy 3 (EB3)) knew and trusted their killer on the basis they were found unarmed.  How can he rule out that the killer(s) didn't search EB3 and/or vehicle and remove firearms(s) and take with them?  He also refers to the killer(s) as male.  How can he rule out a female? 

[Holly Goodhead]

It doesn't appear the friends/families/supporters of Steele and Whomes have set up any Internet sites to campaign etc.  As such I've been unable to find much by way of reliable info eg pathology reports, wit stats etc.

Assuming this Guardian article is accurate by way of weather I find it odd the farmer and his friend were able to get a clear view inside Rolfe's Range Rover.  The farmer, Peter Theobald (PT) supposedly said he was surprised how little blood was present based on his knowledge of shotguns.  The prosecution claim the shootings took place on 6th Dec at approx 7pm.  PT and his builder friend Ken Jiggins (KJ) found the victims on 7th Dec at approx 8am.  KJ did not go to work due to the weather conditions.  PT states he had to remove ice from the windscreen of his Land Rover.  If the Guardian article is correct with snow falling from 4pm on 6th Dec until early hours on 7th Dec surely the windows of Rolfe's Range Rover would be obscured by ice/snow not only outside but also inside from the warmth of the bodies creating condensation internally turning to ice as the bodies cooled.  Where the Guardian article states "Its windows, despite the ice, were clear" I assume this means despite the ice generally, rather than despite any ice on the windows of Rolfe's Range Rover?  Maybe the victims were held hostage somewhere and forced to drive to Rettendon at gunpoint where they were shot in the early hours? 

This might account for the fact they were found unarmed ie they were relieved of them?

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1996/mar/07/fromthearchive

[Holly Goodhead]

According to Rolfe's girlfriend they were all due for a meal in Romford at 8pm.  Rolfe told his girlfriend she needed to be ready by 7pm.  Tate took a call on his mobile just before 7pm which lasted 4 minutes.  If he was at Rettendon when he took this call it would mean they were all running late but afaik none of them rang to say they were running late.  Various images of Tate and Tucker socialising show them well turned out in smart casual clothes.  Soc images of the pair on the mortuary table show them wearing jeans, tshirts, bomber jackets and very scruffy CAT boots.  This attire seems at odds with the pair going out with girlfriends to a restaurant.  If they intended to wash and/or change this would just add to their delay.  Maybe they had such a sense of entitlement they just expected others to hang around waiting for them ie girlfriends and restaurant.

[starryian]

I believe that the police have the right men. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence against both Steele and Whomes. The fact that their mobile phone records place them at or near the scene (a small village of Rettendon in Essex) The two were picked up on two different transmitters, meaning Whomes must have been using his mobile phone in an area overlapped by them – and Workhouse Lane (The scene of the murders) was in the centre of it. Further,supergrass and alleged driver of the two killers, Darren Nicholls told police that suspect Mickey Steele had told him that one of the murdered men - Pat Tate - received a mobile phone call from his girlfriend in the Range Rover moments before he was killed (Phone records later verified this call)
Moreover, the two had the ultimate motive to murder the three men - self preservation. Witnesses have stated that Pat Tate had expressed his intention of killing Jack Whomes and Mickey Steele over a drug deal that went bad very shortly before he was murdered.
For my money they are guilty.

[Holly Goodhead]

I believe that the police have the right men. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence against both Steele and Whomes. The fact that their mobile phone records place them at or near the scene (a small village of Rettendon in Essex) The two were picked up on two different transmitters, meaning Whomes must have been using his mobile phone in an area overlapped by them – and Workhouse Lane (The scene of the murders) was in the centre of it. Further,supergrass and alleged driver of the two killers, Darren Nicholls told police that suspect Mickey Steele had told him that one of the murdered men - Pat Tate - received a mobile phone call from his girlfriend in the Range Rover moments before he was killed (Phone records later verified this call)
Moreover, the two had the ultimate motive to murder the three men - self preservation. Witnesses have stated that Pat Tate had expressed his intention of killing Jack Whomes and Mickey Steele over a drug deal that went bad very shortly before he was murdered.
For my money they are guilty.

Hmmm a lot of circumstantial? 

Phone masts can only cope with a certain amount of phone traffic.  Once it hits max users are automatically redirected to other nearby masts.  In this case the adjacent area is always busy being near to the Dartford crossing but more importantly on the day/time in question the weather conditions were particularly bad with heavy snow causing the inevitable road traffic chaos which in turn no doubt put additional pressure on phone masts with mobile phone users making calls re running late etc.  Weather conditions also interfere with mobile signals/masts etc.

We would need to see all the phone records to draw any conclusions.  We don't know DN told the police anything.  We only know what we've been told.   The police may have fed this info to their supergrass or he may have learned some other way.  These people and their girlfriends all appear to have been part of a circle. 

I have no idea whether or not they are guilty.  The lot of them were/are horrible people imo but that's neither her nor there in deciding whether or not Steele/Whomes committed the crimes they were convicted of. 

Whomes will soon be eligible for parole and it also appears the case is under review by CCRC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-44237411

https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/fresh-appeal-hope-for-pair-convicted-of-essex-boys-gangland-murders-1-5503916

[Holly Goodhead]

I've been reading up a bit more on this case and was under the mistaken belief that Steele owed Tate his cash contribution for the poor quality batch of cannabis and therefore a motive existed for the murders.  But I now know that the Dutch supplier, John Stone, reimbursed Steele in full and the motley crew, including Tate, travelled to Holland to assist bringing the cash back to UK.

I don't see what the motive was for Steele/Whomes to murder Rolfe/Tate/Tucker?

Steele was the only one capable of driving boats across the channel and flying planes ie importing drugs so why would Tate/Tucker want to murder Steele/Whomes?  Tate/Tucker had established a distribution network via the clubs so why would Steele/Whomes want to murder their distributors?

I don't buy into all this gangsta talk about Steele/Whomes murdering Tate/Tucker because they supposedly boasted they were going to murder Steele/Whomes.  I think they all had previous convictions but murder/risk/length of sentence is a whole different ball game especially when it doesn't appear any real threat to life/face/finances was at stake?

[Holly Goodhead]

In answer to the thread title...in my opinion, definitely not.

There was a mountain of circumstantial evidence including detailed telephone logs, which were extremely incriminating. 

Incidentally, there was a third man in the Range Rover, Craig Rolfe, who was also killed.

What exactly did the mountain of circumstantial evidence exist of? 

What detailed telephone logs are you referring to?

[Holly Goodhead]

Definitely not imo too. Due to the connection with another man which is not widely known,I am certainly confident the right men were convicted.

Are you able to identify the other man you refer to?

[Holly Goodhead]

hi at 6pm on the evening of the murders rolfe gave his girlfreind 60 pounds to buy a dress to wear later that evening as he dropped her off he told her he and the boys were going to meet mickey steel to look at a landing site for a light plane to drop drugs.its in her police statement

The murders involved a large scale police operation (including CENTURY) surely the police would interview extensively those close to the murdered trio ie Rolfe's partner, Donna Jaggers.  If Rolfe's partner was aware he was going to meet Steele then surely this info would have been imparted to police at an early stage and Steele taken in for questioning?  Afaik Steele/Whomes were not even interviewed until months later?

According to Donna Jaggers WS dated around March 96 Rolfe gave her some money to purchase something new to wear for the night out in Romford with Tate/Tucker and their respective girlfriends. Rolfe told her to be ready to go out by 7.00pm and he would collect her.  Collect her from where Lakeside or their home in Chafford Hundred which is a short distance from Lakeside.  This imo is very suspicious.  The logistics need explaining:

- Travel time to and from these places: Rolfe/Lakeside toTucker/Fobbing to Tate/Basildon to Rettendon for recce - collecting girlfriends - final destination the table booked at restaurant in Romford at 8pm.  It can't be done in 2 hours ie Rolfe on CCTV at Lakeside at 6pm and Romford at 8pm. 

- If the evening was such it demanded new attire for Donna Jagger why would the guys turn up in scruffy old jeans, tshirts, bomber jackets and dirty Cat boots in an era where this wasn't considered fashionable attire for a night out?  Numerous photos of Tate show him socialising in smart clothes.  And if they were going to change this would just add further time which they didn't have.

[Holly Goodhead]

Rolfe's Range Rover on CCTV @ Lakeside @ 6.00 pm

Lakeside to Fobbing (Tucker) 19 mins

Fobbing to Tate (Basildon) 9 mins

Basildon to Rettendon 15 mins 

43 mins total. 

Lakeside/Chafford Hundred to Romford 28/26 mins

According to Donna Jagger's WS Rolfe dropped her off at Lakeside and told her to be ready for the restaurant in Romford by 7 pm.  It is not clear where DJ was to be collected from: her home in Chafford Hundred or Lakeside.  The distance between the two via car is some 2 mins so she was capable of walking home.  Either way if it was all prearranged Rolfe would know all these journeys/collections/drops off and time spent at Rettendon would exceed 1 hour so why tell DJ to be ready by 7pm when he wouldn't be home until 7.26pm at the absolute earliest and this does not allow for any time spent at Rettendon.

[sika]

The murders involved a large scale police operation (including CENTURY) surely the police would interview extensively those close to the murdered trio ie Rolfe's partner, Donna Jaggers.  If Rolfe's partner was aware he was going to meet Steele then surely this info would have been imparted to police at an early stage and Steele taken in for questioning?  Afaik Steele/Whomes were not even interviewed until months later?

According to Donna Jaggers WS dated around March 96 Rolfe gave her some money to purchase something new to wear for the night out in Romford with Tate/Tucker and their respective girlfriends. Rolfe told her to be ready to go out by 7.00pm and he would collect her.  Collect her from where Lakeside or their home in Chafford Hundred which is a short distance from Lakeside.  This imo is very suspicious.  The logistics need explaining:

- Travel time to and from these places: Rolfe/Lakeside toTucker/Fobbing to Tate/Basildon to Rettendon for recce - collecting girlfriends - final destination the table booked at restaurant in Romford at 8pm.  It can't be done in 2 hours ie Rolfe on CCTV at Lakeside at 6pm and Romford at 8pm. 

- If the evening was such it demanded new attire for Donna Jagger why would the guys turn up in scruffy old jeans, tshirts, bomber jackets and dirty Cat boots in an era where this wasn't considered fashionable attire for a night out?  Numerous photos of Tate show him socialising in smart clothes.  And if they were going to change this would just add further time which they didn't have.

This operation commenced post murders.  Steele was very quickly identified as the prime suspect.  Steele and his team were placed under surveillance.  As part of the operation, he and Tates girlfriend, Sarah Saunders, were called numerous times by undercover police pretending to be members of the IRA who had invested money with Tate. 

They knew they were dealing with a smart cookie in Steele and therefor decided to gather as much incriminating information as they could before making a move.  As a result, they were able to arrest all the main protagonists, including Tates brother, Nicholls and a couple of corrupt Policemen, in one fell swoop and pick their stories apart. 

[sika]

Whomes conceded that he was in Rettendon that night at 7pm.   He reckons he was helping Nicholls with his car which had broken down. 

He failed to offer up this explanation in any of his police interviews.  It was only once they’d all seen the telephone logs, that they concocted their stories.

[sika]

Steele found himself in a very difficult situation.  Tates girlfriend, Sarah Saunders, had made a point of arranging a meeting with Steele so that she could warn him of Tates threat to kill him. 

Tate was displaying particularly unpredictable behaviour at this point.  Steele obviously took the threat seriously.

[Holly Goodhead]

This operation commenced post murders.  Steele was very quickly identified as the prime suspect.  Steele and his team were placed under surveillance.  As part of the operation, he and Tates girlfriend, Sarah Saunders, were called numerous times by undercover police pretending to be members of the IRA who had invested money with Tate. 

They knew they were dealing with a smart cookie in Steele and therefor decided to gather as much incriminating information as they could before making a move.  As a result, they were able to arrest all the main protagonists, including Tates brother, Nicholls and a couple of corrupt Policemen, in one fell swoop and pick their stories apart.

If Steele was very quickly identified as the prime suspect why did it take so long to arrest him?  Surely the soc and surrounding area would contain forensic evidence eg footprints, CCTV footage of the getaway car driven by Nicholls?  As it stands it appears the evidence amounts to the testimony of supergrass Nicholls and to a much lesser extent the phone evidence.

Operation CENTURY:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Century

I don't believe Sarah Saunders was Tate's girlfriend at the time of the murders?  Rolfe's girlfriend, Donna Jaggers, refers to Tate having a girlfriend called Clare.  You can read her WS as follows.  Was Sarah Saunders the mother of Tate's young child?  If so this would be a reason she would need to maintain contact.  By all accounts he was a 'loving father'.  According to tel comm providers SS made a call to Tate shortly before he was murdered. 

http://jeremybamberforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,8987.msg427042.html#msg427042

NAME: DONNA LYNN JAGGERS
AGE / DATE OF BIRTH: 26 27101969

Who states:- This statement consisting of 013 pages, each signed by me, is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and I make it knowing that if it is tendered in evidence I shall be liable to prosecution if I have wilfully stated in it anything which I know to be false or do not believe to be true.

DATED: 140396
D L JAGGERS (SIGNED)

I am the common law wife of Craig ROLFE whom had been my partner for seven years. I have been asked about Craig's association with Tony TUCKER and Pat TATE and their involvement with drug dealing, and the circumstances surround their deaths. Craig had been involved with TUCKER for approximately three or four years and was registered as a Director of TUCKER's security company running Nightclub doors.

This was in name only and I know that Craig never had any involvement in running the business. His association started as a result of TUCKER buying drugs from Craig. They then became more involved as time went on and they started doing drugs deals together. In early 000095 Craig was not being very active and was not completing many deals therefore he did not have much money.

He was being promised that a large deal was due which would provide him with plenty of money, in the mean time we were scraping to get by. I later learnt from Craig that a person called Mickey 'The Pilot' who I now know to be called Michael STEELE was a friend of Pat TATE who in turn was a friend of Tony TUCKER. STEELE I understood to be a pilot who brought drugs into the country, and I understood that he had been in prison for it.

Craig told me that STEELE was a ruthless person who really didn't think very much of other people. In early 000095 I was aware that TATE was in prison and I recall TUCKER and one other person, whose details I do not know, running around getting TATE's money together for him to finance the deal. I am fairly sure that John MCCARTHY had some of TATE's money.

Craig told me that this was happening and stated that STEELE was happy to continue bringing it in until they were all millionaires. I can not say when the deal took place but I can say that at that time I witnessed the change over of the drugs. Mickey STEEL drove to Longwood Stables in Dry Street, Basildon, Essex, where TUCKER had two horses. I arrived there with Craig and met Tony who was with his horses.

We waited for Mick to arrive which he did in a blue Toyota RAV4. Although I had remained in our car and I had my back to where Mickey STEELE had parked, I was able to look over my left shoulder towards the rear of his car. I saw STEELE take a large dark coloured kit bag, measuring approximately three feet in length by about twelve to fifteen inches in diameter, from the boot of his car.

By the way he was holding the bag it appeared to be very heavy. He handed it to TUCKER who put it in the boot of our car which was a Vauxhall Senator. Craig then got back into our car and drove to another location. Craig took the holdall out of the boot and took it to a "safe house' where all the drugs were stored. I went into the house with Craig who then placed the bag on the table.

He opened the bag up and I saw that it contained bars of brown cannabis resin which were all individually wrapped in a clear film. I was present when he checked that it was good quality by burning and smelling a sample and then counting the bars. I am unable to say how many bars there were. I have only met Mickey STEELE on a couple of occasions and that was only in passing.

I have not actually spoken to STEELE. On each occasion when I have seen him he has always made me very aware that he does not want me to look at him. The last deal which STEELE carried out for them was approximately two weeks after TATE was released from prison which was at the end of 001095. Craig told me that Mickey STEELE was arranging to bring in sixty thousand pounds worth of cannabis from abroad.

Craig put in seven thousand pounds, TUCKER put in twenty thousand pounds and TATE and a fourth person called Barry DOORMAN were putting in the remainder of the money. A couple of days before the cannabis was collected I went with Craig to TUCKER's home address in Fobbing, Essex, to hand him the seven thousand pounds which was in a Tesco's carrier bag. The money was handed to TUCKER who was in turn going to hand it to STEELE.

We were only at the house for about five minutes and as Craig and I were leaving and walking down the driveway towards our car, I saw Mickey STEELE walking up the driveway towards the house. He passed by us and nodded to Craig. He did not speak or acknowledge myself. STEELE had come from a white car which I believe he had been driving. I can not say what the car was but it was clean and had the appearance of an average family saloon.

There was a second male in the car who had short dark hair and appeared to be a little bit younger than STEELE. He appeared clean shaven but I did not take any further notice. We got into our vehicle which I believe was a Vauxhall Frontera which had been loaned to TATE by Barry DOORMAN, and left. A couple of days later Craig told me that STEELE had been arrested by Customs Officers whilst he was taking his boat from the water.

This was following him dropping the cannabis off at a safe point on the coastline about three miles away. That same day TATE was arrested during the early afternoon having crashed TUCKER's Porsche car in Southend. I was at work and would have finished at 1500 hours that day. Craig picked me up from work and told me what had happened to STEELE. About 1600 hours TUCKER phoned Craig on his mobile phone and told him about his car and what TATE had done to it.

About 1800 hours that day Craig and I drove to Southend Police Station to collect TATE. Once in the vehicle I became aware that TATE already knew about STEELE being arrested. He then used Craig's mobile phone to ring Jackie STEELE. He asked her if everything was 'safe'. I took it that it was as a result of TATE's manner and subsequently what he said to Craig. He said that it was all 'safe', I took this to mean that the drugs had not been found.

On this occasion I did hot know where the meeting between STEELE and the others was to take place but after a couple of days Craig brought his share of the cannabis round to our house in Chafford Hundred. Because the cannabis had already been sold on, the same day Craig and I took it up to the Golders Green area of North London where Craig handed it onto a coloured male called Gary.

No money was exchanged because the cannabis was what's known as 'laid on' Gary for him to sell and then pay Craig. The agreed amount per kilo worked out to be approximately ten thousand pounds for the lot. Already the others had placed their own share with other dealers but very quickly they started receiving phone calls telling them that the cannabis was very poor quality.

I learnt through Craig that TATE and TUCKER were very agitated because STEELE during this time was trying to push the price that he wanted up. In affect this was eating into their personal profit from the deal. They contacted STEELE and told him that they wanted their money back because the cannabis was rubbish. STEELE didn't want to take it back. TATE and TUCKER then started putting real pressure on STEELE to recover the money.

By pressure I mean through intimidation. I can not say exactly what they did, because I do not know, but I recall hearing conversations they had with STEELE on the phone where they were renting and raving at one another and pacing up and down. I understand that STEELE finally agreed to return the cannabis and get their money back for them. TATE in a fit of temper about the whole affair smashed each slab before it was returned.

STEELE had told them that a parcel the same size had been picked up by mistake and that's how the problem had come about. I am not certain but I think that on this occasion STEELE had to collect the cannabis from TUCKER's home address in order to return it. STEELE arranged to hand the money back to them on the continent. He was going to return the goods to his suppliers and then take the money to a pre-arranged location where he was to meet Craig, TUCKER and TATE.

The day they were going to meet coincided with Tony TUCKER's birthday which was the 171100. His girlfriend, Anna, had pre-booked a surprise night in a London hotel prior the trip to collect the money being made. Therefore Tony was not going to go. They wanted a group of people to go over in order that the money could be divided up to bring it back into this country.

Craig asked me to go but I refused because I was not happy about getting involved and didn't want to go. The eventual party consisted of Barry DOORMAN and his wife who went in their own car. Pat TATE and Craig with three girls. Donna GARWOOD, Liz FLETCHER and Gaynor HAYZER. They travelled in the Range Rover and left via Harwich. Craig did tell me where they went to but I can not remember the location or where they stayed.

I know that they stayed overnight in a hotel and were met by Mickey STEELE. I was told that he met TATE and they went into a separate room. They returned the next day with the money. Whilst all this was going on I was told that STEELE was promising TATE that he had a 'big job' lined up for him. Craig told me that STEELE had approached TATE and asked him to nick someone elses gear from them.

I understood that STEELE had been asked by a London based drugs firm to import 30 kilos of Charlie (Cocaine) and I believe that he was going to bring it in by plane from Holland. He had told Pat TATE that he was going to be given fifty thousand pounds as an up front payment to take to Holland and he was going to bring the Charlie back in company with a member of the London firm.

The idea was that Pat TATE and Tony TUCKER would rob the firm of the Charlie when it arrived over here. STEELE had stated that he wanted to share it between them and had told the firm that he was going to land near to Clacton. Craig told me that STEELE was planning to actually land in South Essex but I never knew exactly where this was likely to be. Craig, Tony and Pat had previously obtained a machine gun from a man called Mad Mick BOWMAN and the details of this are subject of a previous statement.

TATE and TUCKER were going to use the gun on the man from the firm in order to take the Charlie. I knew that they had made sure the gun worked but I did not know how far they were planning to go when they robbed the firm. STEELE was going to land the plane and TATE and TUCKER were then going to take the complete load. It was going to be split, eventually, ten kilos each, and was going to be taken to John MCCARTHY.

Craig told me that MCCARTHY was going to pay them nearly one million pounds for the load which was for TATE or TUCKER to divide. Not long after Craig had told me about this he told me that TATE and TUCKER had decided that he was going to drive the load away once it had been taken and go to MCCARTHY'S with it. They had told Craig that they intended to rip STEELE off by cutting 3 kilos of the Cocaine into ten kilos of impure.

This would have resulted in TATE and TUCKER having twenty seven kilos between them. The remaining three kilos was going to be taken to Mick BOWMAN and he was going to cut it for them. I do not know what the arrangements were to get the three kilos to BOWMAN or to get the ten kilos of impure back to STEELE. By this time I was getting very worried by Craig's involvement and told him that I didn't want him have any part in it.

He told me that STEELE didn't know that he was going to be driving and he convinced me that he wasn't as heavily involved as the other two in what was going to happen. He also talked about the money which was likely to be coming their way and how that would enable us to go ahead with whatever plans we wanted. I realised that I wasn't going to be able to talk him out of it and, albeit I really didn't want him to go through with it, I gave up in the end.

I believed that by this he was in too deep. Craig told me that the money had been paid to Mickey STEELE who had taken it to Holland. The weather had changed and there was now snow on the ground. Craig told me this was causing them delay and they were waiting for it to clear. On the day of the murder I was working as normal and was due to finish at 1500 hours. That evening Tony TUCKER and his girlfriend Anna, Craig and I and Pat TATE and a girlfriend named Clare, were all going to the Global Net Cafe restaurant in Romford.

We were going out because they believed they were coming into money and they were going to have a pre-celebration. Graig phoned me at work in the afternoon and told me that Mickey STEELE had contacted Pat TATE and said that he wanted to meet with TATE and TUCKER to go and look at somewhere they could land a light aircraft. Craig mentioned to me that they had been to or were going to, I can't remember which, to the T.G.I. Fridays restaurant at Lakeside. I later found out that this had been TATE, TUCKER, and Craig and a person railed Peter CUTHBERT.

I do not know why they met or what was discussed. I left work at 1500 hours that day and went home. The meal at Romford was booked for 2000 hours. I was busy wrapping Christmas presents when Craig returned home with our daughter Georgie. We were at home together for about an hour and a half. Craig told me that I was to be ready for 1900 hours to go out. He was going with the others to look at the air strip and then would come to collect me.

Craig wanted me to have something new to wear for the evening and took me to the Lakeside shopping centre at 1745 hours. He was driving the Range Rover and left me to go and pick Tony TUCKER up. Craig told me that he was going because he didn't want Tony to be in a position to say that he hadn't had any part in the arranging. I also understood that Craig was going to collect Tony TUCKER from his home and they were going to meet TATE and STEELE later. I did not have contact from Craig, TATE or TUCKER after this point.

D L JAGGERS SIGNED STATEMENT
TAKEN PLACE:
TIME:
DATE: 140396
WITNESS TO SIGNATURE:
OFFICERS SIGNATURE:

[Caroline]

Hmmm a lot of circumstantial? 

Phone masts can only cope with a certain amount of phone traffic.  Once it hits max users are automatically redirected to other nearby masts.  In this case the adjacent area is always busy being near to the Dartford crossing but more importantly on the day/time in question the weather conditions were particularly bad with heavy snow causing the inevitable road traffic chaos which in turn no doubt put additional pressure on phone masts with mobile phone users making calls re running late etc.  Weather conditions also interfere with mobile signals/masts etc.

We would need to see all the phone records to draw any conclusions.  We don't know DN told the police anything.  We only know what we've been told.   The police may have fed this info to their supergrass or he may have learned some other way.  These people and their girlfriends all appear to have been part of a circle. 

I have no idea whether or not they are guilty.  The lot of them were/are horrible people imo but that's neither her nor there in deciding whether or not Steele/Whomes committed the crimes they were convicted of. 

Whomes will soon be eligible for parole and it also appears the case is under review by CCRC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-44237411

https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/fresh-appeal-hope-for-pair-convicted-of-essex-boys-gangland-murders-1-5503916

How many people had mobile phones in 1995?