EXCLUSIVE: RETTENDON 30 YEARS ON: 'Essex Boys' trial recording destroyed and transcripts missing as debate of Whomes and Steele's guilt rages on

THERE is no audio recording or full written transcript of the trial of Jack Whomes and Michael Steele for the infamous "Essex Boys" triple murders, despite it being designated a case for which records can never be destroyed, UK News and Investigations can reveal.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has 131 boxes of evidence left over and gathering dust from the 1997/98 prosecution of Whomes and Steele, which have to be retained indefinitely, but the files do not contain a complete transcript, the CPS has admitted.

Separately, the firm that creates court transcripts for the Old Bailey, said there is no longer an audio recording of the trial, so no new transcripts can be made.

These exclusive pictures (above) show just some of the 131 evidence files gathering dust in CPS storage while it carried out a search for what it held of the transcript.

Thirty years ago today (December 7 2025) the bloodied bodies of three drug dealers were found in a Range Rover (above) on an isolated snowy farm track near Basildon.

Pat Tate, 37, Tony Tucker, 38, and Craig Rolfe, 26, had been lured to the location in Rettendon before they were ambushed and shot dead with pump action shotguns.

The grisly executions on December 6 1995, put Essex on the map again for all the wrong reasons less than three weeks after headlines about the death of 18-year-old Leah Betts.

Her parents provided pictures of her unconscious in a hospital bed after she became ill after taking ecstasy scored from a Basildon nightclub linked to the dead men, who were alleged to have been involved further up the chain in the drug's supply.

The murders spawned a plethora of books and movies about or based on the assassinations, including the 2000 film Essex Boys starring Sean Bean, and the Rise of the Footsoldier series from 2007.

Just over five months after the killings Essex Police arrested two prime suspects for the triple murders after a criminal associate, who was arrested over a cannabis importation agreed to turn supergrass to testify against them.

Darren Nicholls, who was involved in drug supply with Whomes and Steele (left and right below), later told the Old Bailey he had driven the former to the country lane, before leaving him there while he waited for his accomplice to arrive in the Range Rover with the three victims.

It was alleged the murders happened after Steele and Tate fell out over a cannabis deal, with the former luring the three men to their deaths on a bogus pretext of showing them a drop off site for a smuggling job by his plane.

It is believed that after Steele, now 83, got out of the vehicle to open a gate, he was joined by Whomes, 64, with the weapons before the pair set about their bloodbath at just before 7pm.

After the jury heard Nicholls' account, that he then returned to a nearby spot to drive them away, and of new mobile phone cell site evidence that put Whomes and Steele in the area at the time, the two defendants were convicted of the murders and each jailed for life in January 1998.

But, it is not just the films that have kept the murders in the public consciousness.

There has been ongoing speculation over whether the right men were jailed ever since.

The CPS search for the transcript was conducted after the Old Bailey conceded that it did not have one, even in its off-site archive, and a new one could not be made.

UK News and Investigations was given permission by an Old Bailey Judge to have access to a transcript of the late Barry Dorman (seen above in a still from the Revelation Films documentary), who was a prosecution witness, at the trial.

It was asked for in order to compare it to his statements, after a covert recording was sent to us of a conversation between Whomes' brother John Whomes, and Essex Boys gang association-turned author Bernard O'Mahoney, 65.

In the recording, John Whomes, who died aged 62 from bowel cancer in November 2024, appears to admit to influencing Mr Dorman to change the evidence he gave at his trial.

In the recording, John Whomes is heard to tell Mr O'Mahoney, that he had rung Mr Dorman from a phone box outside Essex Police's Chelmsford HQ during the trial, and asked him to change what he was going to say.

He said that Mr Dorman "switched" what he said, in favour of Whomes and Steele's defence.

The ploy did not work and their pair were convicted of the murders in January 1998.

John Whomes had been an active campaigner, arguing that the pair were innocent, and went on to suggest it was one of the country's worst ever miscarriages of justice, so the recording casts doubt on his sincerity.

The recording was made during an off-camera conversation John Whomes had with Mr O'Mahoney, while the Revelation Films documentary Essex Boys: The Truth, which came out in 2015, was being made.

Mr O'Mahoney, an associate of Tate, Tucker and Rolfe (above left to right), had been supporting Mr Whomes' campaign that the pair were innocent, also penning a series of books about the case.

He changed his stance after Whomes allegedly confessed to him during production of the documentary that his brother and Steele were actually guilty of the murders, but he was just trying to get them freed.

Due to Mr Whomes' alleged "confession", Mr O'Mahoney asked the documentary's production team to fit him with a microphone to record some of his conversations with John Whomes when they were off camera.

During one discussion, said to have been in a bar, Mr Whomes appears to say he asked Mr Dorman to change his evidence on the witness stand, in favour of Steele, in the hope it might put doubt in the minds of the jury.

Before John Whomes died, UK News and Investigations sent him the recording and asked him to comment on it.

He claimed that the conversation had been edited and denied taking part in any conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Chris Matthews, who directed and produced the documentary, confirmed the recording was genuine.

He said: "The recording of the conversation was done whilst Bernard and John drank in a bar. Bernard suggested we mic him up, which is what we did. The audio file attached is as was recorded."

Mr Dorman, who died aged 73 in December 2021, was a former Met Police officer who had opened a used car yard in Corringham, near Basildon, and became friends with Tate through the auto trade.

Mr Dorman had, on November 14 1995, sold the Range Rover, the three men were later found dead in, to a friend of Tate and Tucker, so they could use it.

John Whomes (left) with Jack Whomes

He had also, with then girlfriend Annette Dayment, accompanied Tate, Craig Rolfe and three teenage girls on a day-trip to Ostend, Belgium, on November 16.

It was alleged that Mr Dorman and his girlfriend then took £30,000 cash back with them to the UK which was later collected by Tucker and Tate - money later alleged in court to have actually been part of a refund from an Amsterdam drug dealer following a cannabis deal which went wrong.

Mr Dorman was so close to Tate that he was among the first people to be questioned by police about the murders and gave a 12-page statement the day after the bodies were found.

He gave two further statements in February 1996. None of the three statements made any mention of the Ostend trip.

Mr Dorman is understood to have made two further statements in May 1996, a two page one a day before Nicholls was arrested on May 13 1996 and a four-page one nine days after.

UK News and Investigations has yet to see these, so it is not clear if they mention the trip.

We requested a transcript of Mr Dorman's evidence so what he said in evidence at the trial, could be compared PS to his earlier statements, to see what, if anything was changed, as John Whomes had suggested during the recorded conversation.

The CPS refused to confirm or deny if it had a transcript of Mr Dorman's evidence, so it was asked under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) if it had a full transcript of the trial.

The CPS also refused to confirm or deny this, using a "costs" exemption that it would take more than 24 hours to establish if it held the entire transcript or not.

UK News and Investigations appealed this, arguing that the CPS would not have such a bad storage system for such an important case, that it would take more than 24 hours to establish if a full transcript was held.

The CPS was backed by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) so we took the appeal to the Information Tribunal.

During the appeal, the CPS produced evidence which showed there were 131 Rettendon case boxes, which were all marked as a "long-term interest case", due to its historical or public significance, and the case files must never be destroyed and retained at its London HQ Records Management Unit.

However, it emerged during the appeal that they were actually held in an off-site storage facility.

Despite saying it would be too expensive to carry out a full search for the transcript, during the appeal, the CPS did carry it out.

It said it was done in just under 24 hours and each box had to be searched as the transcript was found to have been split up and spread across several of the boxes.

Although much of the transcript was found, they could not find Mr Dorman's evidence.

Unfortunately, there was limited news coverage of Mr Dorman's evidence at the time of the trial.

A report in the Basildon Evening Echo, published during the trial on October 21 1997, said Mr Dorman told the court he lent Tate £10,000 before the Ostend trip for what he thought was a car deal.

He said: "I knew Pat very well and I often loaned him money to buy cars. I lent it to him as a friend. But I was practically forced into going with him to Ostend. He seemed to be quite desperate."

Mr Dorman said while he was at Ostend he met another man who he believed was Steele.

In a January 2003 interview with the BBC, Mr Dorman further spoke about the Ostend trip, questioning Nicholls' account.

He said Steele and Tate "were chatting and laughing with each other and there was no suggestion of any ill feeling between them."

He said: "Mick Steele gave Pat the £70,000 and Pat gave Mick £2,000 in wages, which suggests Mick was just the gopher.

"I don't believe the coppers were bent but Darren Nicholls may well have pulled the wool over everyone's eyes."