Insurance broker Simon Burgess is planning to set up a Braintree-based soft porn website - financed from the proceeds of a children's book.

Father-of-two, Mr Burgess, 39, said that the site will be paid for by a £1 million book and film deal for The Finchingfield Chicken.

It is the story of Violet, the Rhode Island Red who hit national headlines last year when she was accused of scratching the village war memorial.

Mr Burgess helped insure the bird for £1 million if she should be eaten, or abducted by aliens or members of the parish council.

Mr Burgess claims that top film companies have already expressed an interest in Violet, who died last year. He hopes her story will rival fellow Finchingfield resident, Dodie Smith's 101 Dalmatians in the animal hall of fame.

The new website, based in an office in Springwood Drive, Braintree, is expected to be up and running by the end of this month.

This week Mr Burgess, who last year caused outrage by backing a book which claimed Braintree women were as "ugly as sea monsters" was unrepentant.

"The site will be soft porn - all perfectly legal," he said. "It is a free market and there is a demand for it.

"I don't have a problem at all with using money from a children's book to set up a soft porn website.

"It's all entertainment and the website will be for adults only. Obviously children will not have access to it."

The company will create 12 new jobs, Mr Burgess said. "I chose Braintree because it combines a low wage economy, affordable housing, highly educated residents and a realistic local authority dedicated to attracting commercial activity.

"This convinced us to move here and similarly others will do so.

"In fact I would not be surprised if Braintree did not soon rival Cambridge as the East Anglian Silicon Valley."

He is equally confident of the success of The Finchingfield Chicken.

"Violet has massive appeal," he said. "When she was alive she was a good egg, a top chick, and is now set to become one of the great animal superstars."

Our attempts to reach the site, or e-mail its address, failed.

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