I WASN’T there to protect him. Poignant words from the mum of Luke Campbell whose life was cruelly cut short aged just 20 when he was murdered by London drug dealers on November 7 last year.

His killers Larbi Mohamed, Saeed Alkadir and Delaine Brown were given life sentences at Winchester Crown Court.

Student Luke Campbell was only six weeks into his IT and business studies course at Bournemouth University when he was chased through the back streets of Boscombe and viciously knifed to death.

Mum Hazel Hayes, 52, who moved back to her native Derby following Luke’s death, has spoken for the first time about the experience.

She said she constantly asks herself how her likeable hardworking and talented son met such a “senseless” death.

She said: “I think it doesn’t register with me a lot of the time. I still think he’s going to walk back through the door. It was really difficult. It was all so senseless. It was nothing to do with Luke and Luke lost his life.”

Hazel has kept Luke’s bedroom intact exactly as it would be if he were still alive.

James Bond and martial arts posters, which he got from his job at a local cinema, are plastered over the walls, while his clothes still hang in the wardrobe.

Hazel explained: “I have still got his room upstairs. Wherever I move, Luke has to have his own room with all his things in it.

“It’s like he’s still here. His posters are up and his clothes in the drawers and wardrobes and his things on the dressing table. Just the same as it was when he was here although it may seem a bit weird,” she adds.

Hazel feels guilty for the fact that it was she who encouraged Luke to go to university in Bournemouth rather than London or Birmingham.

“I’d always wanted to live by the sea. Bournemouth seemed like the best place. I said to Luke why didn’t he come to Bournemouth and have a look at the university there. I wanted him close to me.

“I thought Bournemouth was a nice safe place. It seemed ideal. I was living somewhere I’d always wanted to live and Luke was going to a really nice university and really excited about it.

“He was only at university for six weeks before it happened.”

The pair were very close and Hazel’s most special memories are of the ordinary things that happened every day – she and Luke playfighting on the sofa and laughing and joking.

When Luke’s father passed away from MS, it prompted Luke to “work even harder” said Hazel.

Luke spent much of his time caring for his father during his illness.

“Boys are always close to their mums. He was very protective towards me.

“When he worked at the cinema he would take me. He was 18 and I said did he really want to take his mum to the cinema? He was a lovely boy.

“We would often fight for a certain place on the sofa and we’d wrestle. They are the most special memories I have got. He used to make me laugh all the time and we didn’t have many arguments.”

Hazel believes Luke had a bright future ahead of him. He achieved 81 per cent in his first exam, marked in October, shortly before he died.

“I think he was looking towards going into computer programming.

“I know in the third year they were sent out to placements with companies like Microsoft. He just thought that was top notch.

“He’s always been clever. He was always getting in trouble for being cheeky at school. Once he went to college the whole thing changed.

“He cared for his dad so much. He said he was going to make sure he did well in his life ‘so my dad would be proud’,” said Hazel.

The trial itself seemed “surreal” she said – as if the lawyers were talking about someone else entirely.

She said: “I think a lot of the time I couldn’t accept it. Unless they actually mentioned his name it didn’t seem like it was Luke.

“There were certain things that came out at the trial I didn’t know – the extent of what they had done to him. It was horrendous. My poor son who had never shown any violence to anyone.

“To hear the witnesses explain how much fear he had in his eyes and I wasn’t there to protect him.”

Hazel says that the trial resulted in a lot of mixed emotions and confusion. She found herself feeling sorry for Delaine Brown, whom the jury heard stabbed Luke in the back garden of a house in St Clements Road in Boscombe.

“This is going to sound really awful but I felt sorry for the one that did it. Because he just looked exactly like a normal boy. At one point he started crying. I felt guilty, I felt sorry for him. The other two – I just think they came across as evil.”

Hazel maintains that Luke hated drugs. “I know he smoked a bit of weed but anything stronger he detested. He always had strong views.”

Hazel is convinced that Luke is always with her and described how sometimes she feels “a calmness” and knows he is there. Sometimes I can feel he’s around.

“I think we go to a better place. I think there is a higher plane we go to. I talk to him all the time.

“ I ask him what he’s doing today and tell him where I’m going.

“He loves animals. He loves his dogs so I say I’m going to take the dog out are you doing something more exciting? Just as if he was here.

“Sometimes it gets too much and I break down.

“I just have to take every day as it comes. Live a day at a time. I can’t think of the future too much.”

Hazel’s daughter Raana and new grandchild are the things that now keep her going she said.

“The only thing keeping me alive is my daughter and grandchild. Without them I wouldn’t want to be here.

“Luke will never again be here to ask me about my day or tell me about his, make me taste a new sweet he thinks is really nice, tell me his troubles, his worries, make me laugh, watch a TV programme with me or a DVD while lays on the sofa and puts his legs on my lap.

“He won’t be here to leave me notes or to text me always saying at the end of his text “love you mum.”