Mother’s anger at and caring son in

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The pain of losing her son so brutally and sitting through the trial of the monster who murdered him is etched across Sally Devlin’s face.

Since the day Simon Gorecki was stabbed to death on a Canterbury housing estate in March, her life was changed forever.

Her grief – still as raw seven months on – is one no mother should feel, but has been intensified by the picture painted of her son by his killer’s defence team.

Foster Christian, who smirked as he was jailed for life last week, had claimed Simon had racially abused him before attacking him with a knife during a drunken row over a shower,

But a jury saw through his vicious lies, agreeing that Christian had armed himself with a knife, stabbing Simon four times in the back and leaving him for dead at the house they shared in Dickens Avenue.

In the horrific attack, Chris- tian also knifed Natasha SadlerEllis to death and stabbed her 20-year-old son Connaugh and a 16-year-old boy.

Christian, 54, denied all charges and pleaded self defence, forcing the victims’ families to sit through a threeweek trial at Maidstone Crown Court.

It was an experience Sally says has hurt her family terribly.

“Simon was painted by the defence as being a racist, drunken, violent man and that was completely untrue,” she told the Gazette in an exclusive interview.

“I need to redress that balance, not just for Simon but for his siblings – Adam, Rory, Elizabeth and Alice. This has hurt them terribly.

“Simon was a fun, caring, kind, compassionate and very ethical man. To listen to him painted in that way was dreadful.”

Just 47 when he died, Simon was a passionate West Ham fan who grew up in London but later moved to Canterbury, where he earned the nickname Simon the Fish while working as a fishmonger at the Goods Shed.

He was living in a communal house with Christian at the time of the murders.

Throughout his trial, mechanic Christian showed little remorse for his dreadful crimes – laughing, smirking and even gesturing with his middle finger when sentenced.

“Christian didn’t have one scrap of remorse,” Sally said.

“Throughout most of the trial I chose to sit to the side because he was in the dock which had solid sides.

“I did that so he couldn’t see me and I couldn’t see him.

“But I know that he was doing horrible things. That’s why I went to sit there, I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

“But when he came back from his little stint, through the

Natasha Sadler