The mother of a young man who was stabbed 36 times and left to die by his ex-girlfriend says she is haunted by the “fear and loneliness” of his murder.

Pietro Sanna, 23, was knifed by Hasna Begum, 25, after she discovered that he had started dating another woman. The 4ft 11in shop assistant then left him for dead in his bedroom in Canning Town.

As Begum was jailed yesterday for life, Mr Sanna’s mother Valentina Coiana said: “Despite the fact that we go on with our jobs, studies, and daily lives, there is a void in our family that will never be filled. It is an underlying pain.”

Mrs Coiana said her son, who moved to London two years ago, dreamed of being a DJ and had been due to return home to Italy for a family wedding this summer. She learned of his death in a call from her eldest son, Giomaria, who found his brother’s body.

She said: “He told me, ‘Mum, Pietro is dead, he’s been stabbed’. Every time I remember that, it seems like a nightmare... I can feel the cold, the fear, the loneliness he experienced in dying that way, and I feel the cold, the fear, the loneliness myself, for not being able to talk to him again, for not being able to hug him again, for not being able to see the realisation of all his life projects.”

Begum, who worked at Clintons in Canary Wharf, had been in an “on-off” relationship with Mr Sanna, a part-time DJ, last year. After they split up she monitored his online activity and, when she spotted that he was dating another woman, sent her abusive messages. When that did not work she went to Mr Sanna’s home to confront him, just after 6am on June 23. Wearing a blonde wig to disguise her appearance, she inflicted 36 separate knife wounds on Mr Sanna — including several to his back.

Begum, of the Isle of Dogs, denied murder, claiming she had been defending herself, but was found guilty at Inner London crown court. Judge Jeremy Donne QC sentenced her to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years, telling her: “What you did was a terrible, wicked thing.”