Friends of Jodie Chesney have paid tribute to the “always smiling” and “amazing” 17-year-old who was stabbed to death in a London park.

Jodie was playing music with five of her friends in Romford on Friday night when she was approached by two males, one of whom stabbed her in the back before the pair fled the scene.

The suspect has been described as a black male aged in his late teens.

Ashleigh Morphew, who attended Havering Sixth Form College in Hornchurch, east London, where Jodie was an Upper 6th A-level student, described her as “the most lovely person”.

She told Sky News: “Every time I saw her in college she would always make my day so much happier.

“She was always smiling and she would just make everyone in the room glow because of how happy she was.

“She is the last person I would expect to have something this violent happen to her. She didn’t deserve it all. She was the most lovely person.”

Miss Morphew said a fundraising campaign to raise £5,000 towards Jodie’s funeral has already reached its goal, and friends have also signed a petition calling for tougher jail sentences for knife crime.

“We have all come together to get justice for Jodie. We are just trying to do as much as we can, as her friends, her community, because she didn’t deserve this,” she said.

She added: “My best memories of Jodie are when I’ve been alone in college and I didn’t have anyone to sit with and she would come and sit with me so I would have someone to talk to. She was amazing like that.”

College principal Paul Wakeling said: “It is with great sadness and shock that I received the news of the tragic death of Jodie Chesney.

“Jodie was an excellent, hard-working and focused student and her loss is devastating to staff and students.

He added: “I extend my deepest sympathy, and that of my staff, to Jodie’s family and friends.”

Another of Jodie’s friends at college, Lucy Elkin, said the attack was “unprovoked”.

Describing Jodie as “pure and innocent”, the 18-year-old told Sky News it “shouldn’t have happened”.

“It was unprovoked. She didn’t deserve it.”

Jodie was pronounced dead an hour after officers had been called. A post-mortem found she died from trauma and haemorrhage.

The teenager was reportedly cradled by her boyfriend Eddie Coyle while she lay dying as he urged her to “please, stay awake”.

She was the 18th person to be killed in London this year and the first teenage female victim.

On Saturday night, 17-year-old Yousef Ghaleb Makki was fatally stabbed in Hale Barns in Greater Manchester.

Two boys who were arrested on suspicion of murder remain in custody.

The attacks come amid a series of fatal stabbings across the UK which have prompted the home secretary to hold talks with chief constables on Wednesday to discuss what more can be done to end the “senseless violence”.

Sajid Javid said: “Young people are being murdered across the country and it can’t go on.”

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