Gangster Kenneth Noye was spared prison when a “judge was misled” by a senior police officer suspected of corruption, a secret Met report reveals.
Ex-Commander Ray Adams made representations in support of Noye in 1977 when Noye was convicted of bribing a policeman.
Channel 4 reveals the 1988 report, codenamed Operation Russell, says Croydon crown court in South London was misled by Adams, who falsely said Noye was an informant.
Noye, now 75, got a suspended term. He would go on to fatally stab undercover officer John Fordham in 1985, but was cleared of murder.
Noye murdered Stephen Cameron, 21, in front of fiancee Danielle Cable in a road rage attack on the M25 in Kent in 1996.
Asked if what happened was “potentially corrupt”, former Met Det Chief Insp Clive Driscoll said: “If you deliberately mislead a judge for a dishonest reason I don’t know another word you could call it.”
Ex-Det Supt Nick Biddiss, who led Kent Police ’s inquiry into Stephen’s murder, added: “I had no idea about that report or the association Noye may have had with officers in the Met. If that’s true that is outrageous.”
The Russell report concluded that “there is no evidence that suggests these actions were for corrupt motives by police and Adams”.
The report tells how Mr Adams also got involved when Noye was held for firearms offences. He again received a suspended sentence.
Noye, who was freed on parole three years ago, was said to have links to gangster Clifford Norris.
Norris’s son David was given a life sentence for the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, 18, in 1993.
C4’s Dispatches reveals how the report was never seen by lawyers for the Lawrence family at the 1998 public inquiry examining whether corruption contributed to the Met’s appalling handling of the killing.
The Macpherson Inquiry said the report’s findings were inadmissible.
Michael Mansfield QC said the Lawrence family should have been able to have access to the review.
A representative for Mr Adams said inquiries into the corruption allegations have exonerated him.
The Met said a report this year by a police watchdog found it is not institutionally corrupt.
Corrupt Cops: What The Met Knew – Dispatches is on Channel 4 tomorrow at 7.30pm.
