Former colleagues of a freelance journalist killed in a stabbing have paid tribute to their “lovely and gentle” friend.

Forty-year-old Timothy Smith died in hospital after being stabbed at a bus stop in Nottingham city centre on May 1.

Timothy lived in Oakham and Langham in Leicestershire during his time with The Rutland Times, where he was a court reporter and council reporter between 1999 and 2002.

He also worked for newspapers in Corby, Kettering and Northampton, before becoming a freelance journalist. He had lived in Nottingham for two years.

Brian Martin, a former Rutland Times colleague, said: “He was a quiet and introverted person who didn’t socialise too much outside work.

“He left The Rutland Times in 2002 and that’s when I lost touch with him.

“I spoke to his brother, Chris, after I heard about Tim’s death. He said that his brother’s happiest days were spent on The Rutland Times.

“Apparently he kept all his leaving cards from staff at the paper and cuttings from his favourite stories in a box in his flat in St Ann’s.

“It is such a terrible shame he is no longer with us.”

During his time in Oakham, Timothy had planned to go into business with the current mayor Jim Harrison, a freelance photographer.

Jim said: “He was a lovely guy. A very gentle person with a keen sense of what was right and wrong. He felt very strongly about people who did wrong.

“We talked about teaming up as freelance journalists — he was going to do the words and I would take the pictures.

“Unfortunately I had a heart attack which laid me low for a couple of years work-wise and it never happened.

“We are both from the North-east and we used to talk about our time there whenever we met up.

“When I heard he had been killed I was deeply shocked. I keep thinking what a waste for such a good man to die so young.”