Paul Fairclough and Dennis Signy represented Barnet FC at the parish church of St Jude's and St Aidan at Thornton Heath today when an emotional two hours memorial service was held for 19-year-old Oliver Kingonzila.

It was standing room only several rows deep for a packed congregation, with dozens of mourners outside the church, and TV cameras filmed the service.

Ashley Carew, a friend of Oliver's, was among the mourners - en route to meet up with his team-mates at South Mimms for the League 2 fixture at Dagenham & Redbridge.

PROTEC academy director Peter Edwards took a party from the academy, including Oliver's former team-mate Joe Tabiri.

Oliver, a 6ft 2ins tall midfielder who Paul Fairclough described as "a gentle giant", trained with the Barnet first team squad before joining PROTEC and played for the Bees in a Herts Senior Cup tie against Hertford in 2007, the year the club last won the trophy. He captained the Barnet U-18 side.

Oliver was stabbed to death outside a club in Croydon in September, the 26th teenager to be killed in London this year, 21 of them from knife wounds.

Tributes were paid to "a boy who lived for football" by family and friends and Oliver's mother spoke of campaigning against knife crime.


Dennis Signy