Friends of the man stabbed to death at a St Patrick’s Day party in Homerton have demanded justice for “someone who was truly loved”.

Tyrone “Sylvester” Silcott, 42, was stabbed multiple times outside Jasmine Lewis’s home in Towpath Walk on Sunday at 8.15am. Emergency services tried to save his life but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ms Lewis had invited about 40 members of the Montserratian community over, and the party was still going when her best friend Sylvester was attacked. She had known him since they were children and said he was “like a brother”.

“We are Montserratians so we celebrate St Patrick’s Day,” she said. “We all come together and party until morning. Everything was so good and then this happens.

“Sylvester would do anything for me – we were very close. He was my best friend. A lovable person. Always joking.”

She added: “I took him to bingo. We were bingo freaks. Everybody loves him in Stratford. People come here crying because he was such a sweet guy.”

Sylvester worked at Mr Clutch in Leyton and had two young children in Birmingham he visited at weekends. Police say he had an argument with another partygoer that spilled outside, where he was attacked.

“It was just a little argument,” said Ms Lewis, “and then he came outside to stand up and wanted fresh air, and that was it.

“I just turned my back, and was coming to my door and I heard screaming.

“I see him dropping on the floor right there. I didn’t even see what happened. It’s a sad thing,”

Another neighbour said none of his friends would ever get over what happened and said “justice will be served”.

“This was not a criminal,” she said. “This was not a gang member. This was someone who was truly loved: a productive member of the community who shared love and life, and I’m going to miss him so much.”

Fighting back tears as she pointed to the the spot where Sylvester collapsed, now marked by five candles, she said: “He loved life. He was life and he lived life until the day he fell down there.

“We could keep you here all day with stories about him.”

Another man told the Gazette: “This is a shock for the whole Montserrat community, not just the young but the old as well.”

Michael Wood, who employed Sylvester at Mr Clutch, said everyone who knew him in Leyton was in tears when they found out. “He was very jovial, a happy person who was never angry and always smiling,” he said. “None of us can come to grips with it.”

A man, 30, arrested on suspicion of murder, has been released under investigation.

Witnesses and anyone with any information are being urged to call the incident room on 020 8345 3715 or contact via Twitter @MetCC.

To give information anonymously contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org.