Kenneth Noye Wins Appeal Challenge

'Road Rage' killer Kenneth Noye has won permission to challenge the refusal of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to refer his murder conviction back to the Appeal Court.

Noye, now 60, was jailed for life in 2000 for the murder of 21-year-old Stephen Cameron, who was stabbed to death on the M25 at Swanley in Kent in 1996.

Noye had fled to Spain after the killing, but was extradited to stand trial in 1998.

His appeal was dismissed by the CCRC in October 2001 and the commission then declined to refer the case back in October 2006.

Noye had argued that the CCRC's decision was legally flawed and, on Friday, Lord Justice Richards and Mrs Justice Swift, at London's High Court, granted permission for a one-day judicial review hearing of that decisions.

The judges ruled that there were "sufficient" fresh grounds to "warrant further consideration of this case".

The argument now presented on Noye's behalf concentrated on the path and depth of stab wounds to Mr Cameron and the degree of force used to inflict them, Lord Justice Richards said.

Noye's solicitors have also acquired material, which criticises the Home Office pathologist who gave evidence at Noye's trial. His lawyers said that Michael Heath, who resigned in September 2006, was completely discredited and therefore it was necessary to consider a jury's response if his evidence was not used and, instead, the evidence of another pathologist was taken into account.

It would also be argued at a new hearing that the CCRC did not properly consider the impact that discrediting Dr Heath would have on the safety of Noye's murder conviction.

(KMcA/JM)