A powerful and moving statement from the grieving mother of a murdered 14-year-old has been read out in court at the sentencing of his killer.

The heart-rending words of Kamila Wisniewska echoed around court five at Newcastle Crown Court as the cruel and devastating impact of Leighton Amies' attack was laid bare.

Her happy life in Gateshead, with her partner, Patrik, and two sons, fell apart on the evening of October 3 last year when Tomasz was fatally stabbed in the chest by Amies, who was also 14 at the time.

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The Northern Echo: Tomasz Oleszak died following the attack in Gateshead Tomasz Oleszak died following the attack in Gateshead (Image: Contributor)

Kamila, who moved to the UK from Poland in 2012, said: "He was the most beautiful boy, with good manners and respect for life.

"Everyone loved his laugh and appreciated his kind, loving and helpful nature.

"I know, as a mother, my pain will never leave me. Not a day goes by I don’t cry.

"Not a day goes by that I don’t enter Tomasz’s room and pray to him.

"I keep imagining him lying on his bed playing his favourite XBox.

"His school things and belongings lie untouched."

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Amies was jailed for life with a minimum term of 12 years on Thursday but Tomasz’s mother knows she will never recover from the pain he has caused.

She said: “It has utterly devastated our lives and broken my heart beyond anything I knew possible.

“We have to somehow now live on without our amazing, gentle, kind, son who has left this world in such a horrible violent and unnecessary way.”

Kamila spoke to Tomasz on the phone not long before he died.

He had been playing on a field and was on his way home at around 7.50pm when he met some friends who were following Amies as part of ongoing tensions in the area.

Amies, who was obsessed with knives, was armed with a steak knife and lashed out when confronted, stabbing Tomasz, a promising footballer with Cleveland Hall, in the chest.

Kamila rushed to her son’s side after his friends knocked on her door to tell her Tomasz has been injured and she was there when paramedics tried frantically to save him.

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In her statement, Kamila said: “There are things I will have to live with forever, for example, flashbacks to that night, trying desperately to keep my boy alive, him lying lifeless on the ground on that dark path, being forced to say goodbye to him, imagining the attack on him and the aftermath which chills me.

“Getting up in the morning is painful. I no longer recognise who I am. I have gone from being happy-go-lucky to being totally overwhelmed by everything.

“This day has changed me forever. I have a hole in my heart."​