A TEARFUL mother has paid tribute a 16-year-old who was 'her daughter and her friend'.

Rochelle Laverack died in a car crash in Rufforth last week.

"I feel privileged to have had her for my daughter," said her mother Jayne at a funeral service in York Crematorium yesterday.

"She lived her short life to the full, she worked hard and she played hard and she would do anything for anyone.

"She was not only my daughter, she was my friend."

Rochelle, from Evelyn Crescent, Clifton, had been a pupil at Fulford Cross School, where she developed a talent for music and drama.

She was training to be a painter and decorator, while working at Asda on weekends.

Her mother told the congregation: "There is no-one in this room who hasn't been touched by Rochelle in one way or another.

"She was such a special person. I can't express in words what the loss of Rochelle means to me."

She said Rochelle had been a like a second mother to her younger sisters, Georgina, Jade and Paige, and had taken them into York as a treat as one of the last things she did.

She also had a brother, Christopher.

In a note written by her sisters, read at the funeral, they said: "Rochelle will always be 16, she will always be beautiful, she will never grow older and get wrinkles."

Yesterday's service was intended to be a celebration of Rochelle's life, and mourners were asked not to wear black.

Rochelle died with friends Jonathan Forster, 20, from Tadcaster, and Matthew Fox, 19, from Stutton, near Tadcaster.

Gordon Browne, 70, from Keighley, also died. His wife Hilary, 63, suffered serious injuries and is comfortable in York District Hospital.

The two cars had been involved in a collision on the B1224 on the evening of January 27.

"I know she has been taken to a much better place," said Jayne.

* The Evening Press attended with the permission of the family.

Updated: 08:47 Wednesday, February 06, 2002