Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

A jury at Chelmsford Crown Court has been hearing how a man paid a hired killer to stab his stepfather so he could inherit £200,000.

The court was told Flash Day, 45, of Rose Allen Avenue, felt resentful that pensioner, John Sales took ownership of his mother's house when she died without leaving a will in 2009.

The prosecution is alleging that when Day discovered Mr Sales had made a will leaving most of his estate to him, he hatched a plan to get hold of the money.   

Mr Sales, then aged 70, was stabbed in his back garden in Hythe Hill, Colchester last November. 

Two men and a teenage girl, have denied conspiracy to commit murder and their trial continues.

Yesterday, a 21-year-old man, from Lawford near Manningtree, admitted attempted murder.

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

The National Lottery has deployed a crack team of butlers on Colchester’s busiest town centre bus route today to try and find the owner of the winning ticket.

Image source, Camelot

The butlers hopped aboard the Arriva Buses number 8 service, between Highwoods and Monkwick, to remind passengers of the Friday deadline for claiming the £8.1m prize and providing a taste of the multi-millionaire lifestyle the lucky ticket-holder may soon be sampling. 

Camelot says anyone not in possession of their ticket, for whatever reason, but who believes they have a genuine claim to the £8,168,679 prize can still claim in writing as long as it's before Friday.   

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

Synth pop pioneers, Depeche Mode are to perform a string of stadium and arena concerts from next year in Europe as far east as Moscow and Kiev, external.

Image source, AFP/Getty

The band, who hail from Basildon, will perform in 32 cities beginning with Stockholm on 5 May. 

But so far, they've announced just one gig for the UK, at the London Stadium (formerly the Olympic Stadium) on 3 June.

The tour supports the band's new studio album, Spirit, which will be released early in 2017.

Great news for fans who still  "just can't get enough" of Depeche Mode. 

Depeche have had 14 UK top 10 singles and 43 top 40 hits, but no UK number one, according to the Official Chart. , external

Their biggest hits include People Are People and Master & Servant. 

A gang of four men on mopeds have got away with jewellery worth a "five figure sum" from a shop in Brentwood.

The raid took place at about 12:50 today at Bonds on Ingrave Road.

Essex Police said they used axes to smash their way in and help themselves to goods before fleeing on the two bikes.

No-one was injured during the heist and police are appealing for witnesses.

The mopeds were later found in a play area off Cromwell Road.

Richard Daniel
BBC Look East

Gainsborough's House, external museum in Sudbury has revealed plans to expand - including the creation of a third floor.

The aim of this is to provide views over the Stour valley on the Suffolk/Essex border - similar to the ones Thomas Gainsborough painted in the late 18th Century when he transformed English landscape painting.

Kate Scotter
BBC News

An Essex businessman has been hit with a five-figure mobile phone bill within 24 hours of holidaying abroad.

Image source, AFP

Sean Owen, from Basildon, had checked with his service provider O2 that he had the correct package before he left for Turkey.

But to his "shock", he received a message saying he owed a total of £20,964 on his second day away.

O2 has apologised and said the charges would be removed. It said such incidents were "rare".

Caroline Kingdon
BBC Local Live

Faster, newer and more frequent trains are on track for Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.

The promise comes from Abellio Greater Anglia, as it prepares for the start of a new franchise at the weekend. 

Spokesman Jonathan Denby says many changes are in store, including shortening the name to Greater Anglia.

The big change will be in 2019/2020, when every train and carriage will be replaced across the entire network. But before that many improvements will be made.  

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

The RSPCA says it's seeing a growing number of exotic animals, like snakes, being abandoned because they're too much of a commitment for some people.

“They need specialist care, external and specific conditions to survive and a lot of people don’t realise what they are taking on when they buy them," said Donna Smith, RSPCA officer.

"We would urge any prospective buyers to do their research before getting a snake like this."

Some things the RSPCA says to consider before buying a royal python as a pet:

• the species lives in the wild in sub-Saharan Africa
• although most royal pythons in the UK are bred in captivity, their needs are the same as in the wild
• they can live longer than 20 years in captivity
• they grow to around 150cm (5ft). The vivarium must allow them to stretch out fully
• the tank needs a warm ‘basking zone’ with a cool opposite end

• the snakes bite if under stress or if they smell food
• they eat mice and rats

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

An injured 3ft (1m)-long royal python has been found found slithering loose in a field in Essex.

Image source, RSPCA

The snake was discovered in the Colchester area last Tuesday by a man who took him home and called the animal rescue charity.

RSPCA officer Donna Smith said the snake was in poor condition with scarring on his head, possibly caused by burns.

“The snake may have escaped from a vivarium or, sadly, may have been abandoned. He wouldn’t have survived for long in the cold, October weather." she said. 

The RSPCA is looking for a home for the reptile. 

As we've been reporting today, the police watchdog has said failings were made by British child abuse investigators which led to delays in following up Canadian police intelligence about suspected paedophiles.

The Canadian probe, called Operation Spade, resulted in Essex Police interviewing Southend deputy head teacher Martin Goldberg, who was found dead a day later.

• Martin Goldberg, who lived alone in Shoeburyness, had taught at Thorpe Hall school for 23 years
• Police found images on his computer of boys undressing in the school's changing rooms and at a leisure centre
• The images, both videos and stills, were believed to have been made from a hidden camera inside a bag from 2000 onwards, and seemed to be of boys aged between 9 and 12
• Officers questioned Goldberg on 9 September 2014; he died on 10 September
• Essex Police did not act on the already delayed information passed to them by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) for eight months
• An Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) inquiry - published in May - found "high workloads" and a lack of staff led to a delay in realising Goldberg worked at a school

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

More details now on the two children arrested in connection with a clown incident we reported earlier.

Image source, Essex Police

A police spokesman has confirmed that two boys aged 14 and 16 were arrested after they received reports of people dressed as clowns scaring children in Wills Hill, Stanford-le-Hope. 

The teenagers, both local, were questioned under a public order offence of causing harassment, alarm or distress. They were later released without charge, but warned about their conduct.

Police said this picture shows the costumes they were wearing.

Earlier we told you about a road in Nazeing being closed by police because of an "on-going incident". 

Police have now issued more details saying they've arrested two people on suspicion of murder and/or conspiracy.

A 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Paul Simmons-Turner (pictured) in Waltham Abbey on 8 December and on suspicion of carrying out another shooting in Stanford-le-Hope on 10 May which left a man with life changing injuries.

Image source, Essex Police

The arrested man, who is from Romford, was detained following a police operation in Sedge Green Road this morning.

Mr Simmons-Turner died after being shot through the tongue in a pub car park and then shot again in the chest when he got in a passing motorist's car.

A 58-year-old woman from Romford was also arrested in connection with the Stanford-le-Hope shooting.

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

Halstead Police station is being put up for sale. The front counter was closed to the public back in March as Essex Police, external tries to reduce the number of buildings they own to save money.

Image source, Geograph/Evelyn Simak

The force says Halstead will still be policed by dedicated officers, but the nearest police station for people in the area to report crime in person will be Braintree. 

The force, which has 80 buildings, wants to reduce this number to 30. 

A spokesman said research carried out over two separate months showed 259 people visited Halstead’s front counter and, of those, only four people visited to report a crime. 

This compares with Braintree which received 2,460 visits during the same period.

A police watchdog inquiry found failings in the way British authorities handled information about paedophiles given to them by Canadian police, a report has said.

Image source, PA

The Canadian investigation, known as Operation Spade, provided the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) with information, which led to the conviction of paedophile consultant Myles Bradbury. 

He lived in Herringswell in Suffolk and worked at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. 

Deputy head teacher Martin Goldberg's name was also handed to the team by their Canadian counterparts. He was found dead the day after he was interviewed by Essex Police.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigated how intelligence containing details of customers who bought films with indecent images of children from a Canadian website was passed to CEOP in July 2012, but not acted upon when Toronto officers asked for an update in October 2013.

The IPCC report found the intelligence had been "poorly handled" by the CEOP centre - a finding already identified by the centre's command unit, which earlier made recommendations.

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

Two children have been arrested in Thurrock over the current craze of people dressing up as clowns and scaring people. 

Image source, Getty Images

There have also been cases in Clacton with police warning they will take action.  

It's something that started in the United States with police in the UK getting multiple reports of incidents across the country. 

One person in Norwich was cautioned by police after he chased a woman in a park while dressed as a clown. 

Dan Holley
BBC Look East weather

Was it the coldest morning of the autumn?

The mother of a man who was murdered in Colchester has been telling the BBC how she lost her job during the trial.

James Attfield, 33, was knifed to death in Castle Park by the then 15-year-old James Fairweather in 2014.

Fairweather, who went on to murder 31-year-old Saudi Arabian student Nahid Almanea three months later, is now serving a double life prison sentence.

Julie Finch, 53, says after the trauma of her son's death, she also suffered by losing her job and home.  

"It was on the day of the guilty verdict. The care home I worked at announced it was closing, so I would be out of work. We also had to sell our house because we had got behind on our debts," she said.

Ms Finch's daughter, Joanne Robinson, 32, had been living with her, but has been living in a homeless shelter in Clacton since the family home was sold.

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

A road through an Essex village has re-opened this morning following a police operation. 

Sedge Green in Nazeing near Harlow was shut between Dobbs Weir Road and Pecks Hill. 

Police say the closure was in place for public safety and will reveal more details as soon as they can.

We'll keep you updated. 

A teacher accused of sex offences has been held by police in Spain, after failing to appear at a court in Essex.

Cory Baptiste, 24, was apprehended in Barcelona on a European Arrest Warrant on Thursday and police are now seeking to bring him back to the UK.

He was due to attend Basildon Crown Court in August, charged with five offences against children.

The National Crime Agency said: "He appeared at a Spanish court and extradition proceedings are under way."  

Kate Kinsella
BBC Look East weather

A cold start to the day, with patchy fog clearing slowly.

There'll be sunny spells, with scattered showers pushing inland from the North Sea and the easterly breeze will keep it chilly along the coast with temperatures reaching a peak of 15C (59F).

Watch my full regional forecast:

BBC Weather has more details for where you live.