Aged just 17, Danielle Cable watched helplessly as boyfriend Stephen Cameron was stabbed through the heart.
And as the 21-year-old’s life ebbed away on an M25 slip road, her own life was destroyed, too.
For after giving evidence against Kenneth Noye and seeing him jailed for life with a minimum 16 years for the murder, Danielle was forced into witness protection, fearing she had signed her own death warrant.
But now, following Noye’s release after almost 19 years in prison, the career criminal has said for the first time she has nothing to fear from him.
“She is at no risk from me. I would be happy to assure her of that... It should never have happened,” said Noye. “As I walk free, so should she.”
The killer, freed in 2019, has spoken out for the first time in a new book by Donal MacIntyre and Karl Howman.
It comes as Noye, now 75 and a grandfather, appears as a central character in drama series The Gold, about the £26million Brink’s-Mat bullion heist he was part of in 1983.
As the main middleman in fencing the haul, he is played by Jack Lowden as – controversially – charismatic.
But his true colours showed when he was convicted of handling some of the gold and conspiracy to evade VAT, getting 14 years. Incensed, he told the jury he hoped they “die of cancer”.
As part of the book, Noye also agreed to sit down after 40 years with the man who brought him to justice over Brink’s-Mat, former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown.
Noye was out on licence in 1996 when he stabbed Stephen and then fled the country. After police tracked him down in Barbate, Spain, Danielle travelled there to identify him in a restaurant and help bring him back to the UK to face justice.
The trial heard Noye was on his way to a get-together at his local pub when he knifed Stephen twice, in the heart and liver.
He had cut up the red van Danielle was driving and Stephen was a passenger in, sparking their fight. Noye, who claims he was unaware he had fatally wounded him, still made it to his pub date.
Claiming to bear no ill will towards Danielle, Noye said in the book: “She gave honest evidence at the trial. I have no issue with her. I am truly sorry for her loss and I am glad she has moved on with her life. She may not believe me but I do want to say this. I am not a danger to her in any respect.
“I was never a danger to her and there was never a million-pound price on her head, as the police suggested. She should be able to fully enjoy her family and friends because there are no threats to her from me – there never was.
“I am devastated at Stephen’s death and the circumstances around it.”
She was not the only other victim, though, as Stephen’s family was never the same again. Haunted by the murder, parents Ken and Toni spent the rest of their lives trying to keep Noye behind bars.
Speaking in 2015 when it was revealed he would be moving to an open prison in preparation for release, Ken said: “We wanted him to stay behind bars and pay for what he’s done. He should serve life. He’s never shown any remorse.”
A year later, Toni died after a short illness. And last year, Ken took a drug overdose in his retirement home flat in Ashford, Kent.
But Stephen was not the only person to die at Noye’s hands. He stabbed DC John Fordham in 1985 as officers tried to prove he was involved in handling the stolen gold. Despite knifing him 10 times, Noye was acquitted on grounds of self-defence.
Former Detective Superintendent Nick Biddiss, who led the hunt for Noye after he fled the UK, said: “Noye is a career criminal who has no compunction to use violence. He has killed two human beings.
“In one case he convinced a jury it was self-defence and in the other he tried the same stunt and came unstuck. I got to know Stephen’s parents and it’s sad they are no longer with us. I can assure you they would be appalled at the way Kenneth Noye is trying to reinvent himself.
“In my view he’s a career criminal and is trying to convince people he’s a reformed character. I don’t think that’s ever going to be the case.”
Danielle lives under an assumed identity for fear of a revenge attack and only sees her family twice a year.
Mr Biddiss said: “I was told there was a credible threat to her at the time. She was instrumental in making sure he got convicted of murder.
“Kenneth Noye has been out for four years and yet Danielle is still living in witness protection. Is that fair? Of course it’s not.”
As well as speaking about Danielle, as part of the book Noye faced former DS Ian Brown. Like most officers, he held a special disdain for Noye.
It was Ian who gave the go-ahead to place Fordham on the ground as a surveillance officer, along with a colleague. “John’s death was a tragedy of extraordinary proportions,” said Ian. “No one could have imagined what would happen.”
But he added: “There is nobody else left alive who knows the story of Brink’s-Mat apart from Noye. I wanted answers, I wanted to challenge him. It is 40 years since Brink’s-Mat and the two people who know most of it are Kenny Noye and me.”
The meeting took place last June, at a studio in Surrey. Noye arrived first and Ian, 83, 20 minutes later. As Noye offered a handshake, Ian hesitated before taking it. And as he stared into the face of the man he described as “pure evil” in a documentary nearly two decades ago, the tension was palpable.
“I never thought this day would come,” Ian told Noye. “No, definitely not,” he replied. Noye claimed to have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice – denying he even touched the gold. But Ian was ready. “We followed a stolen car from your house and saw it park up and exchange gold. Two and two sometimes does make four. We raid your house and we find gold. What are the odds?”
When police searched Noye’s mansion, they found 11 gold bars. Noye claims it was from Brazil, not Brink’s-Mat, and he was convicted because he was earlier acquitted of DC Fordham’s murder.“He believed because of the death of Fordham he didn’t stand a chance with the police or the jury,” said Donal.
Someone else accused of handling the gold – but found not guilty – was John “Goldfinger” Palmer, who Noye turned to after killing Stephen.
Donal said: “Noye and Palmer never met before his arrest on Brink’s-Mat, contrary to what appears in the BBC series, but there is no doubt by the time he went on the run for Stephen’s murder, Palmer was a trusted friend. With his help, Noye [evaded] capture for two years before being arrested. The manhunt was the biggest in Europe at the time, if not the world. Covering it, we wanted to present two sides – to hear Noye’s side for the first time.”
The Brink’s-Mat raid sparked one of the world’s biggest criminal probes, spanning four decades and numerous deaths – including that of Palmer, who was shot dead at his home in 2015.
But while Ian accepts Noye has served his time for Stephen’s murder, he left the meeting with more lingering questions than answers.
“I think he’s guilty of laundering the gold but he still denies it,” he says. “Do I think he has genuine remorse for John Fordham? Only he knows. We are both old men now, with a decade or so left, and clearly there are some secrets we’ll both take to the grave.”
- A Million Ways To Stay On The Run: The Uncut Story Of The International Manhunt For Public Enemy No.1 Kenny Noye, by Donal MacIntyre and Karl Howman, is published by Mirror Books tomorrow and available via Amazon and all good book shops.
