Liam Gallagher, Tyson Fury and Wayne Rooney were among those who attended the funeral of boxing champion Ricky Hatton.

While famous faces and family gathered at Manchester cathedral for the private memorial service, thousands of people lined the streets on Friday morning to pay their respects as the procession passed.

The procession was led by a Reliant Regal – the yellow three-wheeler made famous on the show Only Fools And Horses – which Hatton famously owned and used to drive.

Ricky Hatton funeral as it happened

As the funeral cortege passed the site of the pub Hatton’s parents, Ray and Carol Hatton, used to own and where he used to train in the basement – known back then as The New Inn – doves were released.

Outside the church a brass band played Winter Wonderland, synonymous with the chant “There’s Only One Ricky Hatton”, which rang round the many stadiums Hatton fought in.

The service was played to the crowds outside the cathedral, during which Hatton’s three children Campbell, Fearne and Millie, each paid tribute to their dad.

Campbell, who has followed his father to become a boxer, said: “I can’t explain how much I’m going to miss you, Dad, and that we won’t be making any new memories – but the ones we did I will cherish forever.”

A statement from Hatton’s mother was read on her behalf, in which she described her son as “our little champion from the day he was born”.

Also pictured attending the service included Happy Mondays’s Shaun Ryder and Mark ‘Bez’ Berry, reality TV personality Calum Best, comedian Paddy McGuinness, former cricket star Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff and actor Dean Gaffney.

Boxer Frazer Clarke and former boxers Frank Bruno, Amir Khan, Scott Welch and Anthony Crolla were also at the funeral, as was pundit and former footballer Chris Kamara.

Eyewitness: A send-off for not just a great fighter, but a great Mancunian

Shingi Mararike

North of England correspondent

@ShingiMararike

As Ricky Hatton’s hearse moved through the streets of Manchester, some of the greatest names in British boxing began to climb the steps of the cathedral. 

From Tyson Fury to Frank Bruno, Amir Khan to Tony Bellew, a collection of champions arrived to pay their respects. 

In a testament to how Hatton’s legacy went beyond boxing, Liam Gallagher of Oasis was also there, as well as Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester. 

But this wasn’t just a service in tribute to “Ricky the hitman”, who fought under the brightest lights. 

This was a tribute to Richard Hatton, the people’s champion, who meant so much to this city, and died at 46.

As the service was played over a sound system, many of the people gathered wiped their eyes and bowed their heads as they heard tributes from Hatton’s loved ones.

Many of the people outside were wearing the sky blue of Manchester City, mourning one of their own.

Some had met him. Like the man whose son was a boxer and benefited from Hatton’s advice, or the two women who would grab a pint and a picture with him at City games.

For one of them, the night he won the world title in Manchester Arena remains a moment, she will never forget. 

When the coffin was loaded back into the hearse for a final journey through Manchester to the Etihad, the crowd parted and applauded, before one last rendition of walking in a Hatton wonderland played by a band. 

This was a send-off for not just a great fighter, but a great Mancunian, who brought so many people here on his journey to becoming a legend. 

Following the service, the funeral procession made its way to the Etihad Stadium, the home of Hatton’s beloved Manchester City football club.

It was met by crowds applauding and singing.

‘I was in awe of him’

Tributes poured in across the world of sport and beyond after Hatton’s death aged 46 at his home in Hyde, Greater Manchester, on 14 September.

The former world champion – nicknamed “The Hitman” – had only announced in July that he planned to come out of retirement in December for his first professional fight in 13 years.

Speaking to Sky News outside the church, former boxer Tony Bellew said he “was in awe” of Hatton when he first watched him training.

“I’ve watched thousands of fighters train over the years, hundreds of thousands. And after watching him… I was in awe of him. He was the standard – everything he did,” he said.

“There are thousands that have turned out today, not hundreds. That speaks volumes.”

A man who stabbed a 16-year-old Syrian refugee in the neck after he brushed past his girlfriend has been jailed for life with a minimum of 23 years.

Alfie Franco, 20, was convicted on Thursday of murdering Ahmad Al Ibrahim on a busy shopping street in Huddersfield earlier this year.

Ahmad, who fled war-torn Homs as an unaccompanied child refugee after being injured in a bombing, had only been living in the West Yorkshire town for a couple of weeks.

Jurors at Leeds Crown Court heard that on 3 April, Ahmad, whose parents said he had dreamed of being a doctor, was walking around the town with a friend – while Franco was going to buy eyelash glue with his girlfriend after a Jobcentre appointment.

When they crossed paths, prosecutors said Franco took “some petty exception” to Ahmad “innocuously” walking past his girlfriend.

CCTV footage showed Franco saying something to Ahmad, before calling him over after a short verbal altercation.

As Ahmad walked over, Franco opened the blade on a flick knife he was carrying and drove it into the teenager’s neck.

The court heard Franco had used cannabis before the encounter.

Later tests also revealed he had recently used cocaine, diazepam, ketamine and codeine.

During the trial, Franco told the court he thought he had seen Ahmad reaching for a weapon in his waistband during the altercation and said he had only been aiming for the boy’s cheek, and wanted to “cut him and get away”.

‘You were under no threat whatsoever’

Handing sentence, Judge Howard Crowson said Franco’s claims of being in fear of Ahmad were “incredible” – as CCTV footage showed him calmly eating ice cream while preparing to stab the teenager.

He told Franco: “During this trial you tried to portray Ahmad as aggressive and threatening. The CCTV reveals you were under no threat whatsoever.

“Ahmad was unarmed as he walked peacefully about Huddersfield town centre that day.”

He then said Franco’s claim to have seen a weapon on Ahmad’s waistband was “a lie,” and added: “Before Ahmad made any movement towards you, you prepared your knife for use.

“You calmly and surreptitiously removed the knife from your waistband, opened it and concealed it in your pocket.”

The judge said he was satisfied that Franco intended to kill Ahmad and that he had “lured” the boy to within striking distance before lunging at him with the knife, deliberately aiming for his neck.

Read more from Sky News:
Nobel Peace Prize winner named – and it’s not Trump
Sunak hired as a senior adviser by Microsoft

Uncle: Ahmad ‘loved helping people’

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said during the trial that “to plunge that knife into someone’s neck who has done no more than walk towards you after you’ve engaged them in some verbal argy-bargy in the street… that’s not reasonable self-defence”.

He added: “This is a case of a young man with a cocky swagger, wandering around town with his girlfriend, on drugs, who doesn’t like the fact that Ahmad has spoken back to him.”

In a victim impact statement read in court, Ahmad’s uncle, Ghazwan Al Ibrahim, said the boy was “an intelligent and outstanding student” whose dream was to become a doctor.

He said his nephew had a “sociable and ambitious personality, loved helping people and was passionate about life”.

Mr Al Ibrahim added that Ahmad spent three months travelling to the UK and initially lived in a Home Office hotel in Swansea with other people his own age before being moved to Huddersfield to be near his uncle.

An Afghan migrant has been found guilty of threatening to kill Nigel Farage in a TikTok post.

Fayaz Khan, 26, chose not to give evidence in his trial, in which he was accused of threatening the Reform UK leader between 12 and 15 October last year in a video on the social media platform.

Mr Farage said the video was “pretty chilling”.

Jurors deliberated for 11 hours and 55 minutes before finding him guilty at Southwark Crown Court.

They had been told Khan had a “very large presence online”, with his TikTok videos amassing hundreds of thousands of views as he showed himself attempting to come to the UK by small boat last autumn.

The Afghan national, who has an AK-47 tattoo on his right cheek and arm, live-streamed his journey across the English Channel from France in a small boat and was arrested on 31 October after arriving in the UK.

He had been living in Stockholm, Sweden, since 2019.

Jurors were told that on 12 October last year, Mr Farage uploaded a YouTube video titled “The journey of an illegal migrant”, which highlighted Khan and referenced “young males of fighting age coming into our country about whom we know very little”.

Khan responded with a video two days later in which he appeared to say: “Englishman Nigel, don’t talk s**t about me.

“You not know me. I come to England because I want to marry with your sister. You not know me.

“Don’t talk about me more. Delete the video.

“I’m coming to England. I’m going to pop, pop, pop.”

He made gun gestures with his hand and headbutted the camera during the video, while pointing to the AK-47 tattoo on his face to “emphasise he wasn’t joking”, Mr Ratliff said.

Mr Farage, who was at court for the trial, said the video was “pretty chilling”.

“Given his proximity to guns and love of guns, I was genuinely worried,” he said.

“He says he’s coming to England and he’s going to shoot me.”

A subsequent TikTok post by Khan read: “I mean what I say” on an image of a GB News report about the threat against Mr Farage.

Other videos Khan posted on social media were shown to the jury in which he appeared to make “pop, pop, pop” noises and similar gun hand gestures.

After his arrest, Khan told police in November last year: “It was just a video, it was never an intention to threaten him.

“It was never my intention to kill him or anything – this is my character, this is how I act in my videos.

“In every video I make those sounds, I say ‘pop, pop pop’.”

Prosecutor Peter Ratliff said the threat to kill was “not some off-the-cuff comment” and the video was “sinister and menacing”.

He said Khan, who denied the charge, was a “dangerous man with an interest in firearms” and who had an AK-47 tattooed on his arm and face.

Defence lawyer Charles Royle said Khan was “remonstrating in his own idiosyncratic, moronic, comedic, eye-catching, attention-seeking way” rather than making a threat to kill in the TikTok video.

He told jurors the trial was “not about your views on illegal immigration, nor about your views on face tattoos, Brexit or Reform”.

Discussing Khan’s decision not to give evidence, Mr Royle said: “You shouldn’t hold any silence against him.”