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Memorial service to be held in Maidstone to mark the first anniversary of the murder of Andre Bent

A memorial service will be held to mark the anniversary of the death of a student murdered on a night out.

Community groups Urban Blue Bus and Maidstone Street Pastors are to mark tragic killing of Andre Bent with a service in Jubilee Square on August 25 at 6pm.

Murder victim Andre Bent, who was stabbed to death in Maidstone by Vasilios Ofogeli
Murder victim Andre Bent, who was stabbed to death in Maidstone by Vasilios Ofogeli

Prayers will be led by a representative of the street pastors, flowers will be laid and candles lit to remember the murdered Londoner.

Val Jacobs, senior trustee of Urban Blue Bus, says many of the volunteers who where there on the night the student died are still recovering from the trauma they went through.

She said: "We feel it's appropriate to remember Andre, and I also feel it's going to be good for those who were there that night to accept a year has passed.

"Our volunteers are still in counselling, they were very much affected by it, so it is good for them to mark the year and then move on from it.

"We go out on a Saturday night expecting to help people who have hurt themselves or had too much to drink, we don't expect to have to try to save the life of someone who has been stabbed.

Watch: Teenager found guilty after the brutal stabbing in Maidstone

"There was nothing more we could have done, but there is still guilt that you bury, there's still that feeling of wishing you could have done more."

The service later this month will take place at the spot where flowers were laid and a vigil took place following the killing last summer.

"We want to remember a life that's been lost," Ms Jacobs said of the planned memorial.

Mr Bent, who was unarmed, suffered a single stab wound to the chest, and was killed outside the county town's Gallery Nightclub in Bank Street in August following a show by rapper MoStack.

In May his teenage killer, Vasilios Ofogeli, was jailed for life and told he would serve a minimum of 20 years.

Watch: Teenager sentenced to life for the murder of Andre Bent

The Old Bailey had heard how the 17-year-old murderer penned a sick rap track in his prison cell, boasting about how he'd killed one person and said it 'should have been more.'

A jury was told that a knife - believed to have been used in the killing - was later found in a garden near the home of the teen.

Mr Bent, a London South Bank University student, had been out in Maidstone for the night celebrating a friend's birthday when he was killed.

Ofogeli, of Grove House Road in Hornsey, north London, also knifed Joshua Robinson, Patrick Conceicao and Lucas Baker, before fatally stabbing Mr Bent.

MoStack later issued an apology for his silence in the aftermath of the killing, but the victim's family said it 'did absolutely nothing' for them.

Vasilio Ofogeli has been found guilty of Andre Bent's murder
Vasilio Ofogeli has been found guilty of Andre Bent's murder

The student died never knowing he was to become a father. His girlfriend Maria was pregnant and was planning to break the news to him on the morning he died.

Read more: All the latest news from Maidstone

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