A distraught family has spoken about their loving, caring daughter and sister who died.

Toni Mills, 24, of Essex Avenue, Jaywick, died at Colchester General Hospital after suffering head injuries in an incident in Jaywick.

Toni had a four-year-old son Macaulay.

Speaking together, her family said she doted on him and thought the world of him.

Toni's family said: "She loved everyone, but no-one more than her son."

The family fondly remembered how she nicknamed her son Noo Noo, her little vacuum cleaner after the character in Teletubbies.

Toni's mother Susan Aris, 44, said she had told Macaulay about the death of his mother and he was coping with the news.

She added: "I just told him Mummy was taken to hospital where the doctors could not make her better, so the angels came to take her up to heaven."

Members of Toni's family - her sister Marrisa Smith 25, brother-in-law Darren Smith, 26, and cousin Paul Curtis, 20, and her mother Mrs Aris - gathered together to pay tribute to her.

Mrs Aris, who lives in Jaywick, described her daughter as a person who was always eye-catching and a loving mother.

Despite their obvious grief, the family could still laugh as they remembered Toni's dry sense of humour and bubbly personality.

Mr Smith said: "She liked dancing and music, being around people and looking after her baby.

"That was her hobby as well as her life."

Her sister Marrisa added: "She wasn't backward in coming forward."

Toni was born in east London and lived there until the family moved to Jaywick about eight years ago.

She attended Colbayns High School and after that she worked for some time on Clacton Pier.

A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Toni Mills.

Jason Mills, 28, is accused of murdering his partner and sister-in-law Toni Mills in an incident in Essex Avenue, Jaywick.

At Colchester Magistrates Court on Monday, Mills spoke only to confirm his name and home address in Essex Avenue.

There was no bail application and Mills was remanded in custody until December 19 at Colchester Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.