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image captionJack Whomes was jailed for life in 1998 for the Essex Boys murders
A triple killer convicted of the notorious Essex Boys farmland murders is to be released from jail.
Jack Whomes, 59, was given a life sentence in 1998 for the execution of three men whose Range Rover had been ambushed in Rettendon in December 1995.
He maintains his innocence and in 2018 saw his minimum term cut from 25 to just over 22 years for exemplary behaviour behind bars.
A Parole Board spokesman confirmed a panel had directed Whomes release.
In one of Britain s most notorious gangland killings, drug smuggler Whomes was convicted of shooting three men in a row over drugs.
Speaking to this newspaper, Jack Whomes brother John Whomes, who lives in Mendlesham, near Stowmarket, said: It could have come out sooner. I know his dad s only been dead four years but it could have come out sooner so we could do something with it. Jack s at the end of his road now. The only thing I would say about it is that it s made all the books and the films look bad. I m glad it has made a mockery of those because some of them were quite damaging. Because all those books and all those films came out as the true story, well obviously the true story has now come out. Let s hope the rest of it does.