The Latest Breaking News from Essex Police

Essex Police officers seized the offensive dolls at the White Hart Inn in Grays

Named locally as Stephen Baxter, 61, and wife Carol, 64, the couple are thought to have been overcome by deadly fumes as they relaxed on Easter Sunday

Only 13% of Conservative voters say displaying dolls is racist after home secretary intervenes in police investigation

Chris Ryley's pub The White Hart Inn in Essex had its display of offensive dolls removed by police - and now an unearthed Facebook post from 2016 appears to show the landlord making a vile joke about lynch mobs WARNING: STORY CONTAINS LANGUAGE READERS MAY FIND OFFENSIVE

A pub has closed after a row over the controversial rag dolls, but what is the history behind them?

‘They used to hang them in Mississippi,’ Chris Ryley commented on photo of dolls dangling from wooden beam

The White Hart Inn made headlines when police were captured storming the pub and seizing the controversial toys after reports of a hate crime.

Landlady Benice Ryley says she is ‘grateful’ for home secretary’s intervention, adding: ‘She’s totally right’

Golly dolls have long been accepted as deeply offensive to Black communities as images from the The White Hart Inn, in Grays, Essex, show some of the dolls being hung by their necks from the top of the bar WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS LANGUAGE SOME READERS MAY FIND OFFENSIVE

The pub was also reported to the local council in 2018 for displaying the dolls, but did not take them down

Two people in their 60s were found dead at a property in Victory Road, West Mersea, Essex, yesterday afternoon. Essex Police launched an investigation to determine the circumstances behind their deaths