Moving tributes were paid at the funeral of a 20-year-old man killed when his car plunged off Beachy Head.

More than 150 people clasping single roses packed a tiny chapel yesterday in memory of Michael-John Peddar.

Michael-John, known as Mikey, died when his black Citroen veered off a clifftop road and over the 535ft cliff near Eastbourne.

The incident, at about 6.30pm on Good Friday, was witnessed by scores of people.

Family and friends gathered at Hastings Cemetery on The Ridge, Hastings, to remember a young man described as loving, popular and adored by many.

Four friends and family who acted as pallbearers brought his flower-decked coffin into the chapel to Aerosmith's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing.

A smiling picture of Michael-John topped the coffin as people struggled to keep check of their emotions during the 45-minute service.

The Reverend Jonathan Graves urged mourners to cherish and revisit the memories they shared with Michael-John, a trainee refrigerator engineer.

He added: "We will never know what was going on in Mikey's mind on that Good Friday afternoon.

"But if all we do is suffer sadness, despair and disappointment we are not going to do him justice."

Prose and poetry was read, including an emotion-charged verse by Michael-John's girlfriend, Nicola Lawson, 18.

She had to be comforted half-way through her touching poem by Michael-John's brother Andrew-Wayne.

Following more heart-rending words, a poem was read entitled Remember Him which ended: "In the beginning of the year, And when it ends, We remember him".

Afterwards, Mr Graves said: "You can shed tears that Mikey has gone or you can smile that he has lived."

Following more music and prayers, the mourners filed out to Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven before Michael-John was buried.

The death of Michael-John, who lived in Priory Avenue, Hastings, devastated his family and friends.

His two older sisters, Carol-Ann Peddar and Belinda Lombard, have since visited Beachy Head in an effort to make sense of the tragedy.

Born in Namibia, Michael-John emigrated to the UK with his family in 1988.

They lived first in Horsham then moved to Leatherhead in Surrey before settling in Hastings in 1991.

The youngest of four children, he attended 1,200-pupil Grove School in Darwell Close, St Leonards, and stayed there until after his GCSEs at 16.

Michael-John had been a teenage lifeguard and member of the Seagulls Swimming Club at the Summerfields Sport Centre in Bohemia Road, Hastings.

After leaving school, he worked as a lifeguard but he harboured long-term ambitions of becoming a marine biologist.

In the meantime, he was training to be a refrigeration engineer but had been off work with a back injury at the time of his death.