SEAN Whyte and his family moved to Colne from Montrose in Scotland early last year, hoping for "a new life, a new start".

But less than two years later the family have returned to Scotland in shock, this time to Forfar, after 17-year-old Sean was stabbed to death yards from their home in North Street.

Celtic-mad Sean, who is now buried in his native Scotland, had become a popular teenager who was hoping to get a job as an IT apprentice to go with his fascination with computers.

He spent most of his spare time involved in sports, including football, darts and chess, and was a regular at the North Valley Youth Club, in Birtwistle Avenue, where he helped set up a football team for younger children.

Sean lived with his mum Mary and younger siblings Hugh and Faye, while his elder sister Catherine lived nearby in Keighley Avenue with her partner Michael Stewart and daughter Chelsea. He remained close to his father, Tony McAteer, who still lives in Dundee, where Sean had worked in the past as a fisherman. Catherine, now 20, said the family had been devastated by Sean's death.

She said: "We were doing really well in Colne. Hugh, Faye and Chelsea were at school and Sean would have been starting a job. We had moved there for a fresh start and it was really working out.

"After Sean's death we ended up moving away with nothing. We left most of our furniture because we just had to get away.

"We have helped each other but we will never forget what happened or forget Sean.

"The worst thing is to think that we will never know what Sean would have looked like as he got older, never see his children."

Tony McAteer, Sean's father, had been separated from his mother for 16 years but had remained close to his son.

He said: "Everything he ever touched has great significance for us -- I still have a piece of a broken snooker cue and it's special to me, because I know my son used to hold it.

"Sean was my only blood son and his death means there is no chance my name will carry on.

"I have seen the impact his death has had on the whole family and I know his mum's life will never be the same."