Margaret, who lived next door to her daughter in Droylsden, Manchester, heard the screams of terror and rushed to see what had happened. She found Jaden standing over Leanne’s bloody body, begging, “Can you help Mummy, Nana?”

Lowe, who served all over the world ­including Iraq, Afghanistan and Belize had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and pleaded not guilty to murder but admitted manslaughter, claiming Leanne had lunged at him with the knife. But the trial jury decided it was murder.

Now, as well as battling her own grief, ­Margaret is terrified of the effect that witnessing the bloodbath will have on Jaden as he grows up.

“No child should ever see what he saw. I don’t know how he’s going to react to that as he gets older. He’s already having nightmares.

“All I can do is comfort him when he wakes up upset.”

Margaret, a divorced mum who also has a son, Ryan, 26, has given up her job as a support worker to look after Jaden. She has also moved out of the home she had lived in for 27 years in an attempt to start a new life away from where the scene of the brutality.

“I’ve never been back to the house, but I have Leanne’s things and they are a comfort,” she says. “We were the same size and I wear her clothes whenever I’m at home. It makes me feel like she’s still around. Anything just to feel a little bit closer.”

Jaden has own memories of Mummy, too. “After Leanne died, I bought a picture frame that said “I love Mum” and put a photo of her ­inside it,” says Margaret.

“I put it on the windowsill in his bedroom, but now every time I go in, it’s somewhere different. Sometimes it’s standing with his toys, sometimes it’s by his bed, and other times I find it under his pillow.

“There’s a white blanket he takes to bed with him every night too. Leanne used to wrap him up in it for ‘cuddle time’ for half an hour before he went to sleep.

“I still try to do cuddle time but I know it’s not the same. I can be the best nana I can be but I’m not his mummy.”

It’s amazing how much Jaden remembers about Leanne, though.

“We listen to the chart show on the radio every ­Sunday because that’s what Leanne used to do.

“We were dancing around the living room once when suddenly Jaden went quiet and said, ‘Do you remember when Mummy used to dance to this one?’

“It was Single Ladies by Beyonce, one of her favourite songs. I had to hold back the tears.”

Margaret says stopping herself from being emotional in front of Jaden is one of the most difficult things about losing her only daughter.

“Every landmark that goes by is a struggle but I have to be strong for him.

“At Christmas, I made sure he had so many visitors and presents that he was distracted and excited, so he actually coped really well.

“But after he was in bed I went downstairs and just sat alone in the living room, crying, wishing my girl was there.

“We miss her. She is missing out on so much, too. It’s devastating.”

Before her death, Margaret tried to help her daughter escape from Lowe on many occasions and she still wonders if she could have done more to stop him.

“He was great with Jaden but very possessive and mistrusting with Leanne.

“He always thought she was up to something while he was away on duty.

“I remember on Leanne’s 21st birthday his jealousy spun out of control and he grabbed her by the throat as she prepared for a night out.” Margaret ordered him to leave but Lowe prowled around outside, even setting fire to the birthday banners she’d put up as a surprise for her daughter.

And that was only the start of a series of violent attacks.

“I was so scared I rented the house next to mine for Leanne.

“I thought if she was close I could keep an eye on her and she’d be safe.”

Sunday Mirror

Loving mum: Leanne with Jaden at two

Just before Valentine’s Day last year, Leanne found out Lowe had been cheating on her and asked him to leave.

When he came to collect his things, he punched her in the face and throttled her in front of Jaden.

Leanne reported the attack and Lowe was charged with assault.

Frightened Leanne worked with a local ­domestic violence unit and made plans to move to where he couldn’t find her.

“I hoped this time it would be over but it was around that time Leanne confided in me that she was pregnant again.

“She’d always wanted more children but after Ian attacked her it made her think about whether she should carry on.

“She was scared. She said to me, ‘How can I have a child with him when he’s done that in front of Jaden?’

“So she made the very difficult decision to have a termination. She was so upset by what she was doing.

“But she said she thought he would have even more of a hold over her if she had a baby, and throughout her pregnancy she’d feel scared and more vulnerable.”

Weeks later, on March 11 last year, when Lowe found about the termination by hacking into Leanne’s Facebook account he was enraged.

He posted a message to her friends and ­family, saying: “Just to let you know, Leanne has aborted the baby. She didn’t let me know or even give me a say in the matter.”

It was later that night that Margaret and her son Ryan heard screams from next door.

By the time they raced over, Lowe was gone, and Leanne lay in a pool of blood on the ­landing, Jaden standing over her.

Frantic Margaret picked Jaden up and took him to a neighbour who he told: “Daddy’s deaded Mummy. She’s all red.”

“I raced back to Leanne and tried ­desperately to revive her,” recalls Margaret.

“I remember her eyes were piercing.

“They were wide open and she was making a gurgling noise. She had a wound to her neck and I tried to stem the blood with my hand and gave her mouth to mouth.

“But I knew she was gone.”

Sunday Mirror

Lost girl: Margaret with murdered Leanne

A year on, those memories still haunt ­Margaret and her grandson.

Last week, as they tried to come to terms with their terrible loss, Margaret and Jaden let off a Chinese lantern into the sky for the girl they call their angel.

“Leanne was cremated and we’ve got a plot ready for her but we’re just waiting for the plaque to be made up.

“At the moment I’ve got the ashes at home with me but I keep them hidden away upstairs because it’s too painful to take them out.

“I took Jaden to the cemetery where she’s ­going to be laid to rest and explained that this is ‘Mummy’s garden’.

“Once the plot is ready, I’ll take him there to see his mummy but I think he prefers to think of her as an angel in the sky.

“That’s what I told him when she died.

“At first, he’d ask when she was coming back, like she was there on holiday, and I had to softly explain that she wasn’t coming back.

“Now when he asks if I can be his new Mummy I tell him he’ll only ever have one.

“But I’ll be the best nana I can be.

“I do try my best but sometimes I think Leanne will barge through the door and say, ‘Oi mum, what are you being soft for, letting Jaden have all that chocolate?’