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For Zhaneta Kakko, November 23 last year was supposed to be a Monday like any other. Her son Vasilaki, known as Vaso, had come home from his apprenticeship and told her he would be meeting up with a friend that evening, but that he would be home early.

As she kissed him goodbye, she didn’t know she would never see her youngest son alive again. Because that evening Vaso, 17, became Islington’s latest teenage victim of knife crime. He was stabbed in the neck on the Shearling Way estate, off North Road, in Holloway. A man has been charged and will stand trial in May.

Two months after their son’s violent death, Vaso’s parents this week spoke to the Tribune of their pain. Sitting on the sofa at their Newington Green home, Zhaneta, 48, said: “Whoever did this didn’t just kill Vaso. He killed all of us. He killed so many hearts. Vaso was not an aggressive person. He had lots of friends. He was lovely, friendly and very helpful to people.”

Recalling the day her son died, she said: “He said he wanted to go out so I prepared him something to eat. He didn’t seem very happy, but maybe I’m just thinking that afterwards.”

Father Thoma, 60, sat next to her in tearful silence as his wife added: “We stayed together for a bit. I gave him a kiss and he left to meet a friend. He said he would be back very early.”

The family returned from Thessaloniki in Greece two weeks ago after burying Vaso there just before Christmas. They moved to the UK 12 years ago, when Vaso was aged five.

“More than 250 people came to the funeral,” Ms Kakko added. “Ten of his friends from London came along as well.”

The family know very little about the incident that led to Vaso’s death. But his mother said: “We want the maximum justice for Vaso – the maximum sentence for who did this. The law in this country is very soft. We don’t feel safe. This is the problem.”

The teenager, who completed his GCSEs at St Mary Magdalene Academy in Liverpool Road last year, was on an apprenticeship at the estate agent his brother Bruno, 25, worked at, mainly carrying out administrative duties. He was planning to embark on a career in the City.

“He was a good worker, good at cold calling. We were planning on offering him a full contract after a year,” Bruno revealed. “He was a very good boy, doing very well for himself. He was never the kind of person that looked for trouble.”

A large shrine dedicated to Vaso, created by his friends at the murder scene, remains in place. Countless bouquets of flowers have been laid, surrounded by empty bottles of drinks Vaso liked – including ice tea, vodka and champagne.

But Bruno is angry that the council and police have asked Vaso’s friends to remove the bottles.

“It’s absolutely disgraceful,” he said. “Considering what happened, how can you be thinking about something like that? The flowers and bottles are there for people who want to remember my brother, but now people are complaining about it.”

Bruno echoed his mother’s call for tougher sentences for youngsters caught with knives.

He said: “We need more stop-and-searches, and tougher laws. The law is too soft. It’s not like in the US, where people think twice about carrying a knife.”

Meanwhile the family’s wait for justice continues. A two-week trial at the Old Bailey is scheduled to start at the end of May.

Uchechukwu Ejimonye, of Finsbury Park, has been charged with Vaso’s murder and possession of a bladed article. He is due to appear for a plea hearing at the Old Bailey on February 22.