OUR BELOVED..

FUNERAL FOR SOUTHPORT VICTIM, 9

- LUCY THORNTON

JUST three months ago, Alice da Silva Aguiar was "giddy" preparing for her first communion at St Patrick's Church in Southport.

Yesterday, her family had to endure the unbearable pain of returning to the same church for her funeral, their priest telling how Alice's parents believed their beautiful little girl had "gone dancing into heaven".

Nine-year-old Alice, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed in the horrific stabbings at a Taylor Swift dance party on June 29.

To mark the funeral a picture was released of Alice taken on the day of the attack, beaming next to a cardboard cutout of Taylor. She died in hospital the next day. Ten others were injured.

Dressed in white, Alice's mum and dad Alexandra and Sergio walked behind the horse-drawn carriage bearing their daughter's coffin.

The crowds who lined the route blew bubbles, released balloons and applauded as the cortege passed by.

In the church, Alice's uncle Richard Lira read a letter from Sergio and Alexandra to their daughter.