A crook waiting to burgle a hotel has told how he saw three men running from a murder scene just seconds after hearing a woman's piercing scream.

Royston Hammond said he was "casing" the Waverley Hall Hotel at Clacton and became a witness in the Gary Chick murder trial.

Mr Hammond, who has a string of convictions for armed robbery, theft, fraud and arson, was waiting to break into the hotel when he saw Mr Chick and his girlfriend, Rosalind Vaughan, leave the lobby and walk towards the seafront.

He told the jury at Middlesex Guildhall in London, on Wednesday, that several minutes later Paul Rowley, 28, of Berkeley Road, Clacton, and two friends emerged from the hotel and "marched briskly" across the road in the same direction.

Rowley, who denies murder, had twice been banned from the Fibbers club where Mr Chick worked.

The court has been told how Mr Chick, 40, was attacked by Rowley and two others with a metal cosh.

Under cross-examination Hammond, who is currently facing jail for arson, admitted that since agreeing to be an informant he had been given bail and a police safe house.

He said he did not tell police about spotting Rowley at the scene until last year because he thought the killers would be caught anyway.

The trial continues

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