An RAF veteran was stabbed to death by a gang who allegedly demanded the keys to his new van.

Bailiff Simon Jones, 57, was attacked in a car park in Derby on Saturday as he sat in the passenger seat of his VW, following a day out with his fiancee.

Bleeding to death he managed to stagger to a nearby house to ask for help where the shocked family called 999. He died shortly afterwards despite police officers' efforts to to resuscitate him.

Hours previously he had been enjoying a day out with friends and his fiancee Sarah Haugh, 38, in York.

RAF veteran Simon Jones, 57, was stabbed to death in a Derby car park on Saturday by a gang of young men allegedly demanding the keys to his van

He managed to drag himself to a nearby house to ask for help but after they were called, police could not resuscitate him

The pair were picked up from the station in Simon's new van by his friend Carl Calledine, and the two men subsequently went out in Derby, where the father-of-three was stabbed in a car park.

Actress Sarah, from Belper, Derbyshire, told The Mirror: 'He was the love of my life. I thought we were going to grow old together.

She said Simon had helped raised her 13-year-old daughter and that she and Simon were saving up to get married and buy a home together.

She said: 'By the time I got to hospital it was too late. I found out he got stabbed in the leg and it hit a main artery.

His fiancee Sarah Haugh, pictured, said: 'He was the love of my life. I thought we were going to grow old together'

Boxing fan Simon Jones pictured with Frank Bruno. A man has been charged with his murder

She told how just hours previously she and Simon took a selfie on the train home after the 'best day' out in York.

Today in Derby Magistrates Court, Jacob Ali, 19, appeared charged with the murder 'with persons unknown' of Simon and robbery of keys and a phone from Carl Calledine.

Zack Stevens, 26, and Thai Johnson, 19, of Chaddesden, Derbys, were charged with assisting an offender.

Simon was a big boxing fan and his friend Joe Egan, a boxer turned actor, told how he raced to the hospital to be by his side, but got there too late.

In tears, he said: 'Society is savage. He was a brilliant man and a great friend of mine. His daughter is expecting his fourth grandchild. It's just horrific.'

Another friend, Rocky Troiani, 48, said: 'He didn't stand a chance. This [knife crime] is madness and it needs to stop.'