The father of Jodie Chesney has said “she was the nicest person any of us know” and “wouldn’t have done anything to deserve this.”

Peter Chesney, the father of 17-year-old Jodie who died after being stabbed in the back in a park in Harold Hill on Friday, said his daughter “wouldn’t have done anything to deserve this - no way”.

He told Sky News: “Someone knows who did this. Just do the right thing. You’ll never know the pain you’ve caused and the beauty you’ve taken away. They’ve destroyed something beautiful here. It’s a disgrace.”

He added: “She was the nicest person any of us know. Everything about her was about being kind and good and thoughtful.”

Mr Chesney said Jodie’s death has torn the family apart and that they are “a mess”, adding: “We don’t know how to deal with it.

“Everyone is suffering because she was so good... everyone just can’t believe - why her? It is not one life deserves to be killed over another, but specifically her, she was so kind.”

Asked what Jodie was like, he said she was a “proud geek”, who was a “great girl”, and added: “The fibre of her being was just about being good, kind... there was nothing bad in her body.”

Her stepmother Joanne said Jodie, who did not realise how popular she was, was “very dry” and “did not have a filter”, who said exactly what she thought whether someone wanted to hear it or not.

“Infectious personality, easy to get along with, no pretension at all. She wouldn’t have hurt anybody,” Mr Chesney added.

Her family said she loved animals - particularly dogs - and had once wanted to be a vet.

Asked what message the family have for those who carry knives or are thinking about it, Mr Chesney said: “I don’t know when this happened, when this was OK to carry knives and use them, it wasn’t like that when I was at school.”

He added: “The message is, just think about what you are going to do with your life. If you are going to carry a knife and if you’re going use a knife, you are going to ruin your life, and others - and why?”

Mr Chesney said knife crime is “getting worse” and that he does not know where the culture has come from, adding: “Something has got to be done.”