THE parents of a teenager stabbed to death 15 years ago this week have made a fresh appeal for information on their daughter’s killer.

Cliff and Linda Tiltman will mark the anniversary of the gruesome murder of 16-year-old Claire this Friday.

The Dartford Grammar School pupil, of Horns Cross in Dartford, was stabbed several times and left to die in a Greenhithe alley on January 18, 1993 – four days after her birthday. Her killer has never been found.

Mr Tiltman, 58, said: “You see other people with their children and their grandchildren and you think what would it have been like for us and you realise you will never know.”

Mr Tiltman said he and Linda, who is battling throat cancer, cannot grieve properly until they know who murdered their only child.

“If someone thinks they know something about Claire’s death I would say to them to come forward.

“The police will not have a go at you. They will welcome you with open arms. If someone is thinking 'if I say it now police will ask why didn’t you say it years ago’, they will not.”

Friends and family remember the bubbly Duke of Edinburgh award candidate as a “bit of a tomboy” who was both kind-hearted and popular.

Claire had been walking from her home in Woodward Terrace to Riverview Road, about one and a half miles away in Greenhithe, when her attacker struck in an alleyway.

She managed to stagger to the entrance of the alley on London Road, near the Railway Hotel pub, where she collapsed.

Mr Tiltman, a plumber, explained: “At first it didn’t sink in. You never get over it but you learn to live with it.”

A Kent Police spokesman said: “This murder investigation is still very much ongoing and Kent Police are committed to finding Claire Tiltman’s killer and bringing him to justice. Officers continue to appeal for them to come forward.”

Mr Tiltman will leave a wreath of flowers at the spot where his daughter was murdered on Friday.

Anyone with information about Claire’s murder can telephone Kent Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.