Murderer Derek Symmons appeared in court yesterday and asked the court to let him keep his home.

Symmons was convicted in December of murdering his hairdresser wife Christine at their Loudwater home.

He then put her body in the boot of his BMW and drove to France. The mother-of-two's body was later discovered after staff became suspicious about Symmons' behaviour.

Symmons appeared in St Albans Crown Court yesterday and asked authorities not to force him to sell his home in Lower Plantation to pay his court costs. See tomorrow's Watford Observer for the result.