A worried neighbour has described how his house shook when his lifelong friend unsuspectingly opened an explosive package before he rushed to help her.

Wayne Jeffries is accused of sending his step-mother Sandra Jeffries a homemade bomb which went off when she opened a parcel inside her house, in Othello Close, Colchester.

David Carter, who has lived in the house next door for 35 years, was drinking tea in his lounge when he heard the noise on December 21, 2016.

Giving evidence at Ipswich Crown Court today, he said: “There was a loud bang and the whole adjoining wall shook.

“Then I hear shouting from Sandy [Sandra]. She was saying: ‘Help me, Dave, help me.’

“I stood up straight away and rushed down to my front door and across the grass to Sandy’s front door.

“The door was closed and all I could see through the doorway was flames.”

Mr Carter then began shouting for Mrs Jeffries to open the door which she eventually did.

He saw her holding a mop which she had tried to use to extinguish the flames.

After ensuring she was safe and far enough away from the door, Mr Carter went back to the house to try to put out more of the flames himself using a mop and heard another smaller bang.

He said: “I went into the hallway and picked up the mop and extinguished the rest of the flames.

“Whilst I was there, there was another bang from within the hallway – it was something like a car backfiring.

“I then left the house because I didn’t want to get hurt.

“I got out the front door and called the fire brigade.”

Mr Carter told the jury he had seen cardboard alight in the house and went back in because he feared other properties – including his own – may be damaged if the fire spread.

He also said he picked up a DPD courier card which he believed may have been needed as evidence and put it on the step outside.

Jeffries, of Glisson Square, Colchester, denies causing an explosion.

It is alleged Jeffries was fuelled by revenge against his step-mother and biological father Victor Jeffries who he claimed had abused him when he was a child.

The police investigated his claims and passed a file to the CPS but no further action was taken initially, nor after Jeffries, 55, appealed the decision.

The court heard how Jeffries had gone into foster care in the 1960s after his biological parents Victor Jeffries and Maureen Wells had split up.

A few years later, he went back to live with Mr Jeffries and his second wife Sandra.

He then stayed with the couple and their other children until Wayne was an adult.

Giving evidence, Mr Victor Jeffries, now 79, said he had not seen or heard from the defendant for roughly three decades.