Journalist Mike Brettell dies suddenly at age of 74

A Black Country journalist and court worker has died suddenly after a suspected heart attack at the age of 74.

Mike Brettell was taken ill at home in Sandyfields Road, Sedgley, on Sunday morning and later died in Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital.

Tributes were today paid by judges and barristers at Wolverhampton Crown Court, where Mr Brettell had worked as both a reporter and member of staff since the 1980s.

Judge Jonathan Gosling said: "I had known him for 33 years. He had an impish sense of humour and was impossible to dislike. He lived life to the full and went about with his tongue firmly in his cheek." Mr Brettell started his newspaper career on the Midland Chronicle in West Bromwich. He then moved to the Wolverhampton Chronicle which he left in the 1960s to work as a freelance journalist.

He covered football matches every week for the Sunday Express and also organised court coverage by the Express & Star in Wolverhampton. When Mr Brettell ceased reporting he joined the staff of Wolverhampton Crown Court and took charge of the logger department. He and wife Janet recently celebrated 25 years of marriage. She said: "He was a man with a huge personality who was loved by everybody."

Freelance journalist Ron Warrilow, who had known Mr Brettell for over 50 years, said: "He was a great guy who loved a joke."

The funeral of Mr Brettell, who had four step sons, Sean, Mark, Niall and Simon, will take place at Gornal Crematorium at 2.50pm on September 15 before a wake at the Dudley Arms. His family have requested no flowers and instead donations to the British Heart Foundation or Help4Heroes.