M25 killer Kenneth Noye’s old home where he killed a cop and let lions prowl the grounds up for sale at £2.8MILLION
THE sprawling Kent manor where road-rage killer Kenneth Noye stabbed a policeman in the heart has gone on sale for a whopping £2.8million.
Noye - dubbed Britain's most dangerous man - built Hollywood Cottage with the proceeds of a lucrative smuggling empire, but is serving a life sentence for the 1996 murder of 21-year-old Stephen Cameron during a row on the M25.
The 70-year-old used the mock-Tudor mansion - since renamed Oakwood House - to hide gold bullion stolen in the Brinks-Mat heist, and once intimidated neighbours by walking a pet LION in the estate's 20-acre grounds.
First listed for sale in December, the manor's centrepiece is a huge indoor pool with self-contained hot tub - surrounded by indoor palm trees, sofas, and a health suite containing a sauna and steam room.
Cops reckon more of the gold was hidden in a secret compartment beneath the 11-metre pool's tiles.
The house itself has five massive bathrooms, a tennis court, and a sleek modern kitchen.
The manicured grounds also boast a barn with three stables and a large child's play area - complete with a giant trampoline.
Outside is a three-car garage, with a patio terrace that overlooks the horse paddock and a huge greenhouse.
The first floor contains a small flat, with a fully-equipped kitchen and en-suite bathroom.
A second flat - with a kitchen, living area, bedroom and bathroom - can be found above the outdoor garage.
The huge barn can hold up to four horses - and above the stables are a games room, a snooker room, and a gym.
The estate is flanked by high walls and was protected by an elaborate network of CCTV cameras when Noye owned it.
High-strength security lights can light up the garden at a moment's notice.
In January 1985 a pair of undercover cops crept into the vast garden to investigate the £26m robbery - but were soon surrounded by Noye's three snarling rottweilers.
One of the officers escaped over the wall - but the other, DC John Fordham, was savagely attacked by the knife-wielding gang boss.
He was stabbed in the heart with such force that the blade severed a rib clean in two.
The detective died on the way to hospital with six separate knife wounds.
Noye later was found not guilty of murder after persuading a jury that he acted in self-defence.
But less than a year later he was back in the dock after melting down the stolen gold - some of which was found under his patio.
The life and crimes of Kenneth Noye
KENNETH Noye embarked on a life of crime at just three years old - when he was caught climbing trees to swipe apples from a neighbour's garden.
He soon graduated to playground bully at secondary school, fleecing lunch money from smaller boys by setting up a protection racket with his thuggish pals.
After a year spent in borstal when cops caught him shoplifting, Noye started a lucrative trade in selling stolen bikes - and was soon flogging whatever he could get his hands on.
A prolific thief throughout the early 1970s, he met his wife - a legal secretary - while waiting to speak to a barrister about charges of theft and assaulting a policeman.
In his early 20s, he realised there was more money to be made in selling rather than stealing the proceeds of robbery.
He soon developed a knack for fencing stolen goods - especially jewellery.
It was this knack that made him perfect to help the Brink's-Mat gang launder their stolen gold.
The scam - which involved setting up a smelter in a pal's basement - soon caught the attention of the Met's elite Flying Squad.
By the time DC John Fordham was stabbed in Noye's garden on a scouting mission, it was estimated that most of London's jewellery contained traces of Brink's-Mat gold.
Noye dodged jail by pleading self-defence - and blew kisses at jurors as he was allowed to walk free.
But he was eventually jailed after the murder investigation turned up evidence of the heist - including 11 gold bars hidden in his vast Kent mansion.
After an eight-year period in jail, Noye was back to his old tricks - narrowly avoiding arrest for his part in a £500,000 cocaine deal with the Miami mafia after a tip-off from a corrupt police officer.
But the law finally caught up with again when he was jailed for life after murdering motorist Stephen Cameron on the M25 in a road rage attack.
He was caged in 2000 after a year on the run in Spain - when he was finally caught by MI5.
Earlier this month he was moved to an open prison in Kent in perperation - despite being classed as one of the prison service's biggest escape risks.
Stunned cops told how Noye set up his record player to play the first bars of the Shirley Bassey song 'Goldfinger' when they walked into the vast sitting room.
A search of the mock-Tudor mansion turned up 11 bars of Brink's-Mat gold, a sackful of copper coins used in smelting, and a Guinness World Records book with the entry on the robbery circled.
Cops also came across a bedroom cupboard packed with leather bondage gear, along with sex aids and sado-masochistic porn films.
The fiend spat "I hope you all die of cancer" at jurors as he was sent down for 14 years.
MOST READ IN NEWS
He served just eight years behind bars before returning to a raucous party at Hollywood Cottage.
He flogged the estate for an estimated £1m shortly before murdering 21-year-old electrician Stephen Cameron during a furious row on an M25 sliproad in nearby Swanley, Kent.
He reportedly made the decision to move after cops annoyed his wife by erecting a permanent - and frequently vandalised - memorial to DC Fordham at the end of their road.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.