Dawlish News

FAMILY and friends filled Cornwood church yesterday to say a tearful goodbye to a "cheeky and loveable" young man who touched many lives.

Ian Keenan, from Seaton Orchard in Sparkwell, and known to all as 'Smithy', was just 17 when he died in Derriford Hospital on September 22, four days after his motorbike collided with a tractor.

Bob Fernival, one of Ian's teachers from Ratcliffe Special School in Dawlish, held back the tears as he spoke of Ian's popularity and "cheeky boy charm" that made women staff at the school "like putty in his hands".

Ian attended Ratcliffe Special School from the age of ten until he was 16-years-old.