Double killer Noye was born in 1947 in Bexleyheath, Kent, where his father ran a post office and his mother ran a dog run.
May 1947 – Kenneth Noye was born in Bexleyheath, Kent, where his father ran a post office and his mother ran a dog racing track. His first brush with crime was at the age of five when his mother caught him taking money from a till in Woolworths while talking to a shop assistant. He was known as a bully at Bexleyheath Boys Modern Secondary School where he ran a dinner money protection racket. During his studies, he also started selling stolen bicycles.
July 1962 – He left school at 15 and worked at a number of jobs, including delivering newspapers and milk, helping out in shops, selling greyhound track programs and selling newspapers in central London. But he moved on to selling stolen car parts and jewelry, while acting as a fence for burglars. His crimes led him to spend a year in Borstal. While waiting to see a lawyer about the charges he faces, he meets the legal secretary, Brenda Tremain, who becomes his wife.
September 1970 – Noye marries Brenda. He forged ties with the underworld in his early twenties and used to hang around the Hilltop Hotel near his home in West Kingsdown, Kent, which was a haunt of gang figures such as the Richardson and associates of the Krays. He got more work as a repairman and “fencing”, but also became a police informant and even joined the Freemasons to interfere in his contacts with the police.
1970s – He tried his hand at a legitimate business setting up a haulage business in a ramshackle caravan behind a garage in West Kingsdown, before becoming a builder, then a property developer, making a profit of £300,000 on a trailer park American. Noye was on the wrong side of the law again in 1977 when he received an 18-month suspended prison sentence for receiving and possessing a shotgun.
1980 – As his profits rose, he bought a 20-acre site in West Kingsdown, but was refused permission to demolish the existing bungalow on the land. It burned down a few weeks later due to a power failure, and Noye replaced it with a fictional ten-bedroom Tudor mansion. He has also invested in a villa in northern Cyprus and a £700,000 yacht.
November 1983 – While posing as a legitimate businessman, he traded in gold which led to him being suspected of aiding the gang trying to get rid of the £23million sterling bullion stolen from the Brink’s-Mat robbery near Heathrow when six gunmen burst into a warehouse, doused security guards in petrol and threatened to set it on fire. The crooks took 6,800 gold bars weighing three tons, as well as platinum, diamonds and travelers checks.
January 1985 – Undercover police officer John Fordham, 45, was watching Noye’s house from a hideout in the park when he was cornered by the mobster’s three Rottweilers. Noye stabbed him ten times and he died two hours later.
December 1985 – Noye and his alleged accomplice Brian Reader who was at the scene when DC Fordham was stabbed, were tried for the murder of the officer at the Old Bailey, but were cleared after Noye claimed he had acted in self-defense as he feared the officer was an underworld assassin targeting him. Reeder then gained notoriety as the mastermind behind the 2015 Hatton Garden jewelry robbery.
July 1986 – Noye was found guilty of handling some of Brink’s-Mat’s stolen gold and conspiring to evade VAT after 11 bullion was found in his home. He was jailed for 14 years after shouting at the jury that convicted him, “I hope you all die of cancer.” Noye was also fined £500,000 and ordered to pay £200,000 in costs.
1994 – He is released from prison and manages to keep a low profile for two years.
May 1996 – Noye stabbed 21-year-old Stephen Cameron to death in a road rage attack on an M25 slip road in Swanley, Kent, while still on license after being released from prison. The murder happened after Noye was cut off by Stephen’s van on a roundabout. Both vehicles stopped at a red light and Noye jumped out to confront Cameron. A fight broke out, but Cameron got the better of it, so Noye retrieved a knife from his car, stabbing Stephen twice in the chest. Stephen died in the arms of his fiancee Danielle Cable, then 17, as Noye quietly left. The next day he fled the country on a private jet, allegedly provided by his late friend Brink’s-Mat, John Palmer.
August 1998 – Noye arrested for the murder of Stephen at a restaurant in Barbate, Spain. He was identified in Spain the day before by Danielle who had been evacuated from the UK by undercover agents.
April 2020 – Noye convicted of murdering Stephen Cameron and sentenced to life in prison, and says he must serve at least 16 years. Danielle, who testified against him, has since been living under an assumed name in witness protection, fearing she could be targeted by Noye.
August 2017 – Noye is allowed to move to an open prison, much to the dismay of Stephen Cameron’s family. He is seen a year later leaving Stanford Hill prison on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.
May 2019 – The Parole Board announced its decision to release him after a panel including a psychologist and two judges decided he did not pose a significant risk to the public and had a “proven ability to control his emotions “.
June 2019 – Noye is released from Standford Hill Category D prison.