Two women who repeatedly stabbed their vulnerable friend before helping themselves to Cheerios have been found guilty of murder.

Helen Bloomfield was found dead on a blood-stained mattress at her flat in Braintree, Essex, on 19 April 2024 - a month after the attack.

The 52-year-old had been knifed by friends Amy Keely, 40, and Charlotte James, 29, before they smothered her with a pillow.

James, of St Michael's Lane, Braintree, and Keely, of no fixed address, will be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on 16 October.

Jurors delivered a majority verdict of 11 to one after 23 hours and three minutes of deliberations.

Judge Christopher Morgan warned the defendants they each faced a life sentence.

Prosecutor Julian Evans KC said Bloomfield - who had previously been sectioned - sustained 44 injuries, including stab and cut wounds.

He said Keely carried out the stabbing before James sat on her chest, using a pillow to smother her. They then helped themselves to a bowl of Cheerios.

The attack happened at about 01:00 GMT on 20 March 2024 at Bloomfield's one-bedroom flat at Godric Place, Aetheric Road.

She was found dead a month later by a concerned friend who used a ladder to enter the property.

"Her flat looked, effectively, as though it had been ransacked," Evans said.

Bloodied scissors and five fragments of a broken mirror were found in the flat.

James and Keely were named as murder suspects after confessing their involvement to six other people, Evans said.

Keely told the trial she lived in a van and would often drink and take drugs with Bloomfield - who she called a "cracking girl".

She described being "gutted" when hearing of her friend's death.

However, Evans said she and James attacked Bloomfield in rage because they were unable to find money or drugs at her home.

James did not give evidence in her defence.

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