A mother has broken down while telling a judge of her grief after her beloved son "gained his angel wings" when he was murdered while getting his hair cut at a Sydney barbershop.
"When a parent dies you lose your past, when a child dies you lose your future," Khalida Toma said at the killer's sentence hearing in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.
Fredon Laith Botrus, 20, was found guilty in September of murdering Alfredo Isho, 20, in January 2019.
He denied being the assailant, but the jury found he was the man wearing a motorcycle helmet who plunged a knife into Mr Isho while he was seated and gowned at Bossley Park's Classico Hair Studio.
The blade punctured his right lung and severed an artery.
CCTV showed the victim outside the barbershop moments after the stabbing, pursued by several concerned witnesses.
In her victim impact statement, Ms Toma said the last time she saw her son alive he told her he was off to get a haircut and would then get them breakfast.
She, her husband and their daughter had fled Iraq for Greece, where Alfredo was born, and the family came to Australia when he was nine months old.
"I came here to feel safe and I don't feel safe," she said.
"Alfredo gained his angel wings and I have been shattered since for all my life.
"Grief is like living two lives - one is where you pretend everything is alright, the other one is where your heart silently screams in pain."
She said some days it was effort just to breathe.
"The longest walk you will ever take is the one down the road of grief."
The hearing continues before Justice Michael Walton.:
