A murder inquiry has been launched after a man was stabbed to death in Colchester.

Thirty-year-old Tommy Boles was certified dead at Colchester General Hospital at 10.15pm last night following an incident half an hour earlier on a grass square outside his council flat in Gurney Benham Close, Shrub End.

A post mortem examination has revealed the cause of death to be a single knife wound to the chest.

For more on this story, see 'Neighbours unsurprised at crime' in our Newsround section. Neighbours today told how shortly before the incident they heard a row take place about a ghetto blaster.

A 25-year-old Colchester man was arrested in connection with the death and was today in custody at Colchester police station.

Det Chief Insp Dick Madden, of Essex Police headquarters, is leading the inquiry.

Mr Boles was today described as a happy go lucky man. A friend said he was "as sweet as a nut".

He knew Grant Byrom, 30, known as Granny, who was murdered on Boxing Day at Forest Road, Greenstead, Colchester.

Mr Boles hit the headlines when he was one of four men charged with murdering Colchester-based soldier Pte James Tomlinson, 18, outside the LA Club in Military Road on July, 7 1994.

Mr Boles was formally cleared of murder but was jailed for two and a half years for causing violent disorder.

During the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court in spring 1995, the jury heard how Mr Boles, who was then unemployed and lived in Mulberry Avenue, Colchester, was among a group who had been fighting with soldiers outside the nightclub, which has since closed.

The jury was shown a blood-stained shirt worn by Mr Boles on the night of the fight.

He had had a number of previous convictions for violence.

Unemployed builder Malcolm Venner, 44, then of Collingwood Road, Colchester, was found guilty of murder and given a life sentence.

Martin Thew, then of St Anne's Road, Colchester, was convicted of causing violent disorder and sent to a young offenders' institution for 18 months.

A fourth man David Herlihy, then of Defoe Crescent, Colchester, was formally cleared on both the murder and violent disorder charges and was released by the court.

Victim Tommy Boles

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