FAMILY and friends said their last goodbyes to murder victim Diane Hamer as her favourite Elton John song played.

Diane, 32, was stabbed to death by her jealous lover, whom she was planning to leave to return to her home town of Burnley.

After killing her at their home in Grimsargh, 61-year-old Arthur Compsty gassed himself in the garden shed.

Diane's coffin was carried into the crematorium chapel by her brother Jimmy, step-father Donald, brother-in-law Duncan, and her new boyfriend Andrew Fullard.

He was planning to help her set up a hairdressing business in Nelson but Diane was killed in the week she was planning to leave.

About 50 members of the family, friends and work colleagues from the hair salon at Preston where Diane worked were at the service.

They included her mum Noreen, of Anne Close, Burnley, son Matthew, 15, and sister June, a nurse at Burnley General Hospital.

Two of Diane's favourite songs were played at the service, Lisa Stansfield's "Real Love'' and Elton John's "Candle In the Wind''. The Rev Tony Dalton, vicar of St Catherine's Church, Burnley, said the horrible truth of her death would always be there.

He urged them to remember Diane in the happy times, as the little daughter bounced on the knee, the little sister growing up, the headstrong harum-scarum teenager she grew into, the mum, and the happy, bubbly, vivacious character that she was.

Mr Dalton said one of the most painful lessons in life was when to let a loved one go.

That had been something Arthur Compsty could not do.

"Maybe he didn't love her enough, maybe he didn't have the courage to face life on his own," the vicar said.

"Don't judge; there has been enough.''

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