A MAN has admitted trying to murder a 70-year-old man at his home as part of a conspiracy.

Ryan Hynes, 21, tried to knife pensioner John Sales to death in the back garden of his terraced house on Hythe Hill, Colchester.

Hynes, of Long Road, Lawford, had denied attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

But he admitted the charges during a hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court today.

Retired Mr Sales was stabbed in his face, chest and back during the attack, at about 5.40pm on November 10 last year.

He sustained "life-changing injuries" and was treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge.

The trial of three other people, charged in connection the stabbing, is scheduled to begin tomorrow at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Flash Ashley Day, 45, of Rose Allen Avenue, Colchester, Scott Moffat, 49, of Colchester Road, Manningtree and a 16-year-old girl from Colchester, who cannot be named by law, deny conspiracy to commit murder and perverting the course of justice.

Hynes will be sentenced at a later date.