MOVING tributes were paid yesterday to a much-loved student who died after an incident on a late night train.

Fellow undergraduates, joined family and friends to pay their last respects to 21-year-old Patrick Brown at a funeral and thanksgiving service at Durham Cathedral.

The second year student of Russian at Durham University died at the city's Dryburn Hospital from head and spinal injuries early on March 3.

He had been found lying at the foot of an embankment near Durham Railway Station, after a train journey from Newcastle.

Mr Brown was a student at University College, Durham, following a short Army commission. The former pupil of Newcastle Royal Grammar School, whose family home was in the Tyne Valley, south Northumberland, planned to make a career in the Army.

His coffin was draped in a Union Flag, and among the mourners were members of the Royal Marine reserve and the Prince of Wales' Own regiment.

Family friend Frank Rooney described him as, "a daring and intrepid young man, who lived life to the full".

The Reverend Ben Gordon-Taylor, chaplain at University College, spoke of his "remarkable capacity for friendship" and described the, "incalculable loss" felt following his death.

The service was followed by burial at South Road Cemetery, Durham.

l Christopher Woolley, 24, a builders' mate, of Bek Road, Newton Hall, Durham, is charged with Mr Brown's murder and will appear at Newcastle Crown Court next month.