IT was the most fitting of farewells to a popular Hampshire teenager.

There was standing room only as hundreds of family and friends of Lewis Singleton packed into Holy Trinity Church in Weston to say goodbye to the 18-year-old who was fatally stabbed.

His coffin adorned with flowers decorated in red and white, Lewis made his final journey through the community in which he lived.

Behind him his devastated family and on foot, scores of his friends and relatives - many wearing special T-shirts bearing his picture and nickname "Ruffian".

Following a hymn specially chosen by Lewis's family which he had sang during his time with the Boys Brigade, the Rev Richard Burningham described how his life had been brought to a "tragic and wicked end".

Lewis died on March 31, hours after being stabbed during an incident in Obelisk Road, Woolston, as he walked home from a night out with friends.

Addressing the congregation who had also filed into an adjoining church hall specially fitted with speakers for the service, Rev Burningham said everyone had been left "reeling and shocked" by the death of Lewis.

The teenager was the third of four children who grew up in St Mary's before moving across the Itchen Bridge with his family.

A former Woolston School pupil, he added: "Lewis always did his best at school and had a particular love for football and music."

The church heard how at the age of 16, Lewis had worked at Southampton Football Club first as a catering assistant and later as a barman - a job he loved.

He had also started a plumbing course at Southampton City College and had taken some time to travel, spending four months in South Africa about which his dad had said "he went as a boy and had returned a man".

Rev Burningham added: "He loved football, he loved music, he loved his family and he loved his friends. He loved life."

The service included tributes from Lewis's parents Terry and Jen which said: "No words, just music playing loud. What a wonderful son, you made us proud."

A short reading on behalf of Tony and Lewis's many friends said: "The church is full of people who have come to say goodbye. But no one wants to see you go and we are left wondering why?"

A tribute from his cousins Matty, Dan and Ben said Lewis was "loved by all and missed by all" adding that he was being "rewarded for all the good things he has done in his life and gone to a better place".

Before the service ended with the sounds of Lewis's own music, Rev Burningham led prayers for justice for the much loved MC; the streets on which things happen that are "violent and wrong" and the success of the Daily Echo's anti-knife campaign "Carrying A Blade - It's Not Sharp" launched just days after the teenager's death.