Noye 'jail escape bid' is foiled

Killer Kenneth Noye plotted to escape from jail using a mobile phone smuggled in a cereal box, it is reported today.

He is in solitary confinement after the plot to escape from Whitemoor prison was thwarted.

The high-security prison in Cambridgeshire was sealed off for 24 hours to allow it to be searched, and police were called. It is reported that two mobile phones were found in a packet of Weetabix. Two pieces of the cereal had been removed and mobile phones placed inside the wrappers. Noye's accomplice, drugdealer-Ronnie Soares, is also in solitary-confinement.

Prison staff said they were convinced Noye, 58, wanted the phones for an escape bid. He has offered ?5million to anyone who can free him after he was jailed for life in 2000 for the M25 killing of 21-yearold Stephen Cameron in 1996.

The Prison Service said: "As a result of dynamic security and observant staff, Whitemoor became suspicious that two prisoners were attempting to gain access to mobile phones. Appropriate action was taken. It is a tremendous tribute to the staff that this was nipped in the bud so quickly."

A jail insider said: "Noye is rated the single biggest escape risk of any prisoner in Britain."

Noye is thought to have concealed at least ?20 million beyond the reach of British authorities. He was cleared of the murder of policeman John Fordham at his Kent home in 1985, but was jailed for 14 years for handling gold from the ?26 million Brink's-Mat robbery in 1983.