THE manager of the London pub where barmaid Charlotte Flannagan was killed today paid tribute to the 22 year old.

Charlotte, originally from Blackburn, had worked at the Barley Mow pub, in the capital's West End, since October.

She was found dead by Metropolitan Police in the early hours of New Year's Eve in the bedroom of the fourth-floor flat above the pub, where she lived.

An inquest, opened and adjourned on Thursday, said she had been stabbed in the neck.

Her boyfriend, 29-year-old Gareth Horton, from Walmsley Street, Darwen, has been charged with her murder and has appeared before Bow Street Magistrates where he was committed to appear at the Old Bailey on January 10.

John Gordon, manager of the pub, said it was a tragedy.

He said: "We are shocked and devastated by what has happened. Charlotte was an extremely popular, bubbly, friendly girl who was liked enormously by both staff and customers at the pub.

"She had been working at the pub a couple of months and will be missed greatly. Our thoughts and sympathies go to her family."

Her parents Kevin and Dorothy, a practice nurse, from Melville Gardens, Darwen were today still too upset to talk.

Officers were called to the pub, in Duke Street, after receiving a call from Lancashire Police. They revealed that the 999 call was made in the county and transferred to the Metropolitan Police.