WEEPING friends and family of murdered Blackburn youngster Dillon Hull heard how he was the victim of "violence in its crudest form" during a church service.

The Rev Steven Abram told about 100 worshippers at St George the Martyr church, near Dillon's Bolton home, that the whole community had been affected.

He said: "We want to pray for the community and with the community in the shock and pain it is going through amidst the brutality.

"These things happening on our streets affect us. TV hardens us to some of the realities of the world, but when it happens outside our window or in our community we feel as though a cannon has been shot at us."

Referring to the possibility that the murder may be drugs related he said: "It is not our place to talk of the rights and wrongs surrounding this shooting. "Let us note that it is the very weak, the very vulnerable and very innocent who so often suffer because of wrong doing.

"The shooting of Dillon is the brutalist of wrong doings."

Meanwhile, Dillon's grandfather has made an emotional fresh appeal for information about the killing which happened yards from Dillon's home when he went to buy lemonade with his 28-year-old stepfather John Bates.

Fighting back tears grandfather Robert Hull of Dover Street, Lower Darwen said: "I would like to say if anyone knows anything or saw anything that would bring a conviction for the person who killed Dillon, tell the police."

He spoke after prayers were offered and said the service had helped him come to terms with the tragedy. He was accompanied at the church service by his wife Linda, and said family support had been vital since the murder.

"That is the only way we can keep going. I have got all my family around me, we are supporting one another.

"We take one step at a time, that is all we can do," he said.

At the family's home in Jauncey Street in the Deane area of Bolton, police are still on guard after Mr Bates returned there on Friday from hospital, where he was treated for a stomach wound received during the shooting.

Neighbours of Mr Bates and Dillon's mother Jane Hull want the family leave the road. More than 350 people have signed a petition calling for their landlady Daxa Patel to evict them.

Mrs Patel told a Sunday newspaper she was meeting with lawyers today to discuss her options.

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