Stabbing victim 'died trying to protect fiancee'

A chef stabbed to death following an open-air music concert featuring The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra reportedly died trying to protect his fiancee.

Reynald Duchene, 37, was knifed shortly after leaving the the open-air concert with his partner Paula Haddlesey, her teenage children and friends.

It is believed the group were approached by two men who tried to steal deckchairs being carried by Mrs Haddlesey but when her partner told them to "go away", they launched a brutal attack.

Paramedics were unable to save Mr Duchene, of South Woodham Ferrers, Essex, who had been to the Concert in the Park in Priory Park, Southend, to celebrate Mrs Haddlesey's 44th birthday.

Her son James, 29, told the paper: "Rey was devoted to my mum. He loved her to bits. She's in a terrible way, in pieces. She had to watch him die. We all did. He died trying to protect her.

The couple had been planning to marry and move to Canada.

Mrs Haddlesey's daughter Sophie, 17, told the paper: "We had the best time of our lives. It shouldn't have ended like that."

She said they had been walking back to a taxi when two men came over, asked for the chairs and began pushing Mr Duchene. Having told them to leave, she said he then chased them around the corner where they pushed him over.

"We didn't know he had been stabbed until about 10 minutes later and he slid down. He was breathing really heavily, we didn't see any blood at all, then he went," she added.

A senior officer said the victim may not have initially realised that he had been stabbed, and members of the public may have seen the altercation and not realised how serious it was.