CALLOUS thieves burgled a grandmother the day before the funeral of her Kidderminster-raised teenage grandson who died after falling into Weymouth Harbour.

Christopher Vaughan's grandmother Iris Meyer, 80, who lives in Cardiff, had returned home from a doctors appointment last Friday to find her home had been ransacked, with cash and jewellery taken, including engagement and wedding rings given to her by her late husband.

She had not wanted to tell her Christopher's mum Julia Vaughan and partner Keith Irons until after his funeral but broke the news following the wake.

Mr Irons said he and Ms Vaughan had visited Mrs Meyer on Monday, while still coming to terms with Christopher's death. He added: "There is never a good time for a burglary but the day before your grandson's funeral has got to be the worst. It is just something else and it all seems to have come at once."

Christopher, 18, who lived at Yellowhammer Court and attended King Charles I Sixth Form before moving to Weymouth last summer, was pulled out of the harbour at 2.30am on Thursday, January 9 but later died in hospital.

His emotional funeral took place on Saturday at St Augustine's Church in Birmingham.

Ms Vaughan said: "It was very moving. There were about 300 people, family, friends and people who had never even met Chris who just felt deeply affected by what happened.

"Me, Chris's father and sister Sarah said a few words and tried to make people laugh and remember him. Afterwards people who did not even know Chris said they felt like they had a really good insight into what he was like, it was a really good tribute to Christopher."

The service was taken by Rev Matthew Tomlinson, who also knew Christopher. The Cardiff-born youngster's "last song", played at his cremation, was Dacw 'Nghariad, a Welsh love song which used to sing to girlfriend Tara Neels, who he lived with in Weymouth.

Ms Vaughan said the family desperately wanted to know what had happened before and after the incident. She said Tara had woken up at about 2am and discovered Christopher had not yet returned home from a pub where they had been that night. She had work the next day so returned home earlier.

She walked to the pub to find him and as she crossed the harbour's footbridge she heard noises and shone the her phone's torch down, realised it was him waist-high in the water and called the emergency services.

Christopher had suffered a cardiac arrest and had become hypothermic. He was later pronounced dead at Dorset County Hospital after doctors battled for two hours to save him.