Regulars at the pub where student John Rees worked as a barman held a charity night in his memory.

John, 24, worked part-time at The Royal George, in Shoreham, for three years before he left to take a computer studies course at Portsmouth University.

Pub manager Angie Griffiths said staff at the pub were stunned when they heard John had died in November.

A 19-year-old Portsmouth man has since been charged with John's murder.

Mrs Griffiths said before his death John had popped in to see them whenever he returned to his family home in Shoreham Beach.

Staff were among mourners at John's funeral in Brighton before Christmas when the family asked for donations for the RNLI and the Canine Defence League kennels in Shoreham, instead of flowers.

Mrs Griffiths said she and pub staff had decided to hold a charity New Year's Eve party in his memory.

She said: "We knew John was a keen sailor and that he knew some of the crew of Shoreham lifeboat.

"Some of them come in here and then have to leave suddenly to the lifeboat station when their bleepers go off.

"We decided to have a charity night and raised £340 which we will present to the local branch of the RNLI soon.

"John was a real character and he loved to gossip. He could talk for England.

"He was always very cheery and nobody here had a bad word to say about him.

"We were just dumbstruck when we heard what had happened to him. It was such a tragic waste of a young life."

John, who worked in the students union bar at Portsmouth University, had been celebrating a friend's birthday on the night he died.