A gripping two-part documentary series has been aired more than 30 years on from one of the most-talked about crimes in Essex in recent history.
On December 6, 1995, three major Essex drug dealers – Tony Tucker, Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe – the so-called "Essex Boys" were found dead in a Range Rover on a farm track near the A130 in Rettendon, not far from Chelmsford.
Their vehicle was spotted by a farmer and his friend, who initially assumed it contained poachers – until they approached it and made a gruesome discovery.
All three occupants had been shot in the head with a pump action shotgun, each so disfigured that they had to be identified by their fingerprints.
Police investigations went nowhere. But then a Braintree super grass called Darren Nicholls named his associates Michael Steele and Jack Whomes as the killers.
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In a trial at the Old Bailey, prosecutors contended the duo had murdered the three men following a row over a drug deal.
The jury convicted them and in 1998, Steele and Whomes were sentenced to life in prison.
However, the men have always protested their innocence and many feel their convictions were a miscarriage of justice, saying police relied on a dubious witness to clear an embarrassing unsolved case.
Nicholls only made the allegations after being arrested himself for drugs possession and was accepted into the witness protection programme in return for his testimony.
Now, the case has been revisited through a two-part documentary series which aired on Channel 4 at the end of May.
It takes a look at some of the conspiracy theories and the convictions surrounding those involved.
The documentary named Murder of the Essex Boys: Blood and Betrayal is available to watch on Channel 4 on demand now
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