HAUNTED BY VIDEOED ATTACK Son-in-law killed my beautiful girl with a knife through the heart... then texted to say sorry
continues: “At midnight, police came to the door. And that’s when every mother’s worst nightmare started.
“They had to tell me twice that Faye had passed away from a stab wound because it wasn’t sinking in. I lost vision and my hearing from the shock.
“But I immediately knew it was him. It hit me that I had such reservations about him at the start that I refused to meet him that first year they were together. I wish I had listened to that feeling now and done something to stop them.”
In court Stella endured the video Caliman recorded on his phone of Faye’s last moments.
Her voice breaking, Stella says: “She was on the settee in her pyjamas crying and begging him to stop. ‘Mario, stop, please stop,’ She was pleading in the most awful voice. And he just said ‘I’m going to kill you’ very coldly. The video showed him punching her in the head, knocking her on to her side, before it went distorted. Then he just walked out and left the door open behind him. Police found their daughter in bed watching TV. “She said she saw ‘Daddy hit Mummy on the head’ but we won’t know what she really witnessed until she’s older and has the words to describe it. Family life was everything to Faye and she was so focused on having this perfect marriage that I think she was ashamed to admit how he really was. “She thought she was big and strong but she didn’t have a chance with him stabbing her. “Faye was so bubbly and very loyal and everything revolved around her kids. She was everything someone should be rolled up into one perfect ball. We called her our firecracker. We were supposed to be going to Fuerteventura to celebrate my 50th birthday, but instead I was with her body in the chapel of rest.”
Faye’s eldest girls, aged nine and 11, live with their father, while Stella is raising Faye and Caliman’s daughter.
And despite never being able to forgive, she hopes to contact his family in Romania so they can meet the child.
Stella adds: “He’ll serve 19 years so he will be in his 50s when he gets out and their daughter will be 21. She can make up her mind if she wants to see him. He’s Romanian and she needs to know her roots and her family there. She is so like Faye. I keep calling her Faye by accident and she says, ‘Nanna, I’m not Faye.’ “Every time she sees Faye’s photo she says, ‘That’s my mum. My mummy’s a big star now.’” Faye’s ashes are buried in a graveyard over the wall at the end of Stella’s garden. She adds: “I sit there and talk to her. I love filling it with flowers, keeping it colourful and tidy. I can’t bring my daughter back but maybe speaking out will help someone else’s daughter stay alive.”