A 17-year-old who murdered a teenager on a crowded dancefloor at an end of term party has been sentenced to life in prison to serve a minimum of 16 years.

Charlie Cosser was stabbed three times in the chest at a marquee on the grounds of a farmhouse at a party attended by more than 100 people in Warnham, near Horsham, last July 23.

Yura Varybrus, 17, who can now be named after a judge lifted his anonymity, was found guilty of murder and having a bladed article following a trial at Lewes Crown Court, sitting at Brighton.

The court was packed with family members as Varybrus was sentenced at the same court.

Varybrus, who was 16 at the time, stabbed Charlie, who he did not know, when a fight broke out between them and two other boys on the dancefloor after Varybrus and his friends were asked to leave the party following complaints about his behaviour towards a girl.

(Image: The Argus)

Charlie’s family sobbed in court while his mother Tara told of the horror of the 11 months since her son was killed.

Mrs Cosser said: “We hear talk about life sentences but we, Charlie’s family and friends have the life sentence.  When the murderer’s family want to see him, to feel him, they can visit him.  When I want to hold my son I have to sit on his bed and hug a small grey box which contains his ashes.

“If I was to share all the impacts of life without Charlie, we'd be here forever. Because the impact of losing him will last forever. I feel like I'm just going through the motions of life with no real sense of enjoyment. Just numbness and sadness and sheer and utter exhaustion.

“When I do laugh or smile I feel so guilty and then the realisation hits again – like a punch to the heart.”

Mrs Cosser told the court how Charlie had been an apprentice groundsman at the nearby private school Charterhouse.

The 17-year-old had been due to go to Zante in Greece with his friends the Monday after he was stabbed.

(Image: The Argus)

“Charlie made us happy,” Mrs Cosser said. “He was a typical 17-year-old lad. He was calm and chilled, he didn’t react, he had never been in a fight, he wasn’t involved with anything dodgy.

“He never had a bad word said against him.”

Martin Cosser told the court: “How Charlie was killed haunts me and my beautiful family every minute of every day and will haunt us forever.

“I have had to watch my lovely family who really are my world fall apart in front of me and I’m completely helpless.

“This world is worse off without my beautiful little boy and will never be the same again.

“I carry a darkness with me everywhere I go.

“I must force myself to carry on when all I want to do is die.”

The court heard that Charlie was still conscious when police arrived at 12.30am and was able to tell them his name, address and date of birth.

He suffered a cardiac arrest on the way to hospital, with internal bleeding caused by a cut to his aorta, the main artery from the heart.

The teenager, from Milford, Surrey, also known as “Cheeks”, died two days later at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on July 25.

Following the defendant’s arrest, jurors heard that bloodstains on his trainers were tested and found to be his own blood.

The court was also told the defendant accepted that he burned the clothes he was wearing at the party in a firepit in the garden, because he said they were covered in his own blood.

The teenager had suffered an injury to his left hand, which the prosecution alleged happened when he was using the knife to stab Charlie.

While the knife has never been found, witnesses at the party told jurors during the trial that they saw Varybrus “drenched” in blood and heard him say “I’ve stabbed someone” after the attack.

A guest at the party also captured part of the violence on video as she began filming her friends dancing to the song Toxic by Britney Spears under disco lights in the marquee.

Judge Christine Henson KC lifted automatic restrictions placed on naming Varybrus because of his age, after applications by the press on Wednesday.

Restrictions continue to ban reporting his address and where he is detained.

Varybrus, from West Sussex, did not to give evidence in the trial but denied both charges.

Varybrus, born in the UK to Ukrainian parents, had his head down in the dock as Charlie Cosser’s family read their victim impact statements.

He spoke only to confirm his name and had his head down in the dock as the judge sentenced him to a life sentence to serve a minimum term of 16 years, minus the 328 days he has already spent in custody.

Judge Henson said: “There is no guarantee you will be released at that point. If and when you are released you will be subject to licence for the rest of your life.”

Charlie’s father shook his head as the defendant was taken down and said: “16 years, that’s it?”

Since Charlie’s death, his family have set up a charity in his name dedicated to fighting knife crime in Surrey and across the UK.

With Charlie’s Promise, the family have raised £130,000 to date.