The sentencing of a pensioner who shot his wife dead at a care home has been delayed.

Ronald King, 87, killed his wife of 50 years Rita King, 81, and has admitted her manslaughter.

He was due to be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday but in a short hearing Judge Charles Gratwicke heard reports on the defendant were yet to be completed.

He asked that King be brought to court on Wednesday and that an expert should attend so reports could be completed.

Proceedings were also adjourned to a possible sentencing date of September 13 in case reports were not finished this week.

King, of Cedar Close, Walton, denied murder at an earlier hearing but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility or by survivor of a suicide pact.

King shot his wife in the communal television room of De La Mer House in Naze Park Road, Walton, on December 28 2015.