Tributes pour in for murdered JMU fresher Liam Miller

A man has been charged with the murder of LJMU fresher Liam Miller.

Samuel Donley, 19, is due to appear in court this morning after allegedly stabbing the John Moores student.

Musician Liam Miller, who studied Graphic Design in Liverpool, was in his hometown in Yorkshire for the holidays when he was brutally murdered in the street.

Detectives arrested the teenager shortly after he was discharged from hospital where he was being treated for a self-inflicted knife injury. He was also charged with the attempted murder of a 50-year old man who was found wounded in a nearby garden.

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Home, halls and course-friends of Liam have paid tribute via Facebook.

Dan Kelly, from Speke, was among those who became pals with the 20-year-old illustrator after they enrolled on the same design course at LJMU last year.

The 30-year-old, who now lives just outside the city centre, said: “We spent every day in uni together, he was a really close friend, even though we only met last September. We were both going to specialise in illustration next year.

“He was the joker of the group, he always put a smile on your face. He came out with all this weird and wacky stuff, crazy ideas that had everyone laughing.

“His illustration work was ridiculously good, that’s one of the tragic things. He was a talented musician too and could play piano and guitar. He was always recording music.

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“He had mates at LIPA and they used to create this Sci-Fi type music that would be great on a film soundtrack. I remember the times we spent making bootleg McBess prints, laughing at Guns ‘n’ Roses videos and playing Donkey Kong.

“A few of us are hoping to get together next week and when we go back to uni we’re going to set up a tribute to him in one of the rooms.

“He’d just turned 20 and had his whole life in front of him.

“He wasn’t a confrontational person, he never got into scraps. He was really sociable and got on well with everyone. It’s just a real shock and we’re all devastated.

“Liam will live on in so many people’s hearts and he will be missed deeply by so many.

“This still hasn’t begun to sink in and God knows when it will.”

Credit: Facebook

Another course-mate, Josh Terry, from Toxteth, spoke of his friend’s gift for illustration.

The 30-year-old said: “From an artist’s perspective he looked at things other people didn’t look at.

“He was always challenging their perception. Half the class wanted to do logos, or brand design, contemporary stuff.

“Liam didn’t, he wanted to do art and illustrations that would last and tell a story, it could be a story others wouldn’t normally pay attention to.

“It was that part of his character that really shone out.

“Me and Dan are two of the oldest in a class that is mainly 19 and 20-year-olds, but Liam was one of the few people who were way beyond their years.

“Without a doubt it’s come as such a big shock and a massive loss.”