Joe's parents Tom and Gwen, sisters Kelly and Danielle and brothers Sean and James wrote their own moving tribute after the tragedy. Their brief, but incredibly touching, statement summed up their devastation and their love for their little angel'.

EVERYBODY wants us to make a statement or give a few comments on how much Joe meant to us and what a loss he will be. None of you have enough time to hear how much he meant to us. How do you condense 11 years of fun and love and heartache, worries and accomplishments into a few words?

Without exaggeration I can say that Joe was one of those special people that if you met him and spent even five minutes talking to him, he would leave an impression on you that you would remember, and usually with fondess.

We were spoilt. We had him every day. He had a few problems, being a child born with cystic fibrosis, but all those who knew him know that he refused to be restricted by that. He got on with life and made minimum fuss about his condition. He loved all the things every other little boy loves, like football, computer games, Bart Simpson, but he was also amazing when it came to problems of any sort.

You always came away from him thinking to yourself "how come I couldn't think of that?"

You really needed to know him to appreciate his potential and now some of you will never know him.

We used to say how good he was, but like all little lads he was no angel.

Somebody just changed that for us. Now we're sure he truly is a little angel. God bless him and may he rest peacefully now.

Joe had a huge circle of friends, all of whom are equally devastated and, like us, they will never be quite the same again.