During the past three weeks she has sat in court just metres away from Aymen Terkmani, 24, and listened to how he sexually assaulted and killed her baby boy, the one who held “the most special place” in her heart.

But what she did not hear is why he did it, nor has anyone else because he refuses to admit what he did to 16-year-old Mahmoud Hrouk on the night on May 16, 2015.

“Honestly I don’t want to say anything about him – he didn’t show any emotion during the trial and I’m not going to show him anything. Let him think whatever he wants,” she said.

And instead of remembering how her son was murdered, she wants everyone to remember who he was – a loving brother, an aspiring builder and Bulldogs fan with an unforgettable smile.

“Everyone that knew him, knew he had a big heart – he cared a lot about everyone, he didn’t like to see anyone crying … I love him so much,” she said.

On Monday afternoon, Ms Dunia was supported by homicide Detective Sergeant Christian Olivares in the NSW Supreme Court as a female juror rose to deliver the verdict.

“Guilty,” she said loudly when asked what the jury had decided in relation to the first count of murder.

“Guilty,” she said again to the second count of sexual assault, looking in the direction of Justice Lucy McCallum.

Ms Dunia rocked back and forth and silently wept.

“My head went numb, it was a shocking moment for me, and I was holding Christian’s hands so tightly … I said, ‘I’m sorry I think I hurt your hand’,” she recalled.

It was the moment she had been waiting for ever since the phone call she had with her son cut out and she was never able to speak to him again.

Mahmoud was last seen riding his blue bicycle to Villawood McDonald’s in Sydney’s west, after getting permission from his father Azzam Hrouk to skip a family dinner.

But when he did not return home as expected his mother called him at 9.42pm.

“Where are you? Come home!” she asked in the last conversation they would ever have.

“It’s OK Mum, I’m with my friend … I’ve got my bike … I will come home,” Mahmoud replied, adding he was with a friend called “Aymen”.

But Mahmoud never came home and his partially naked and bloodied body was found in a vacant house on Belmore St in Fairfield East the following morning on May 17, 2015.

THE HUNT FOR A KILLER

THE day after Mahmoud’s body was found, homicide detectives knocked on the door of Aymen Terkmani’s family home about 5.15pm on May 18 - a few hundred metres away from the crime scene.

Terkmani’s father was sitting on the front porch when police showed him their search warrant and told them they would search his home in relation to the death of Mahmoud Hrouk.

“We’re mainly interested in the clothing and property of your son,” one detective said.

A video of the search warrant, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, shows a female police officer pulling a black bum bag from the built-in wardrobe inside Terkmani’s room.

Inside this bag was Terkmani’s Commonwealth bank card and $250 cash.

A detective rifled through the bag and for a moment held a five-dollar note before placing it on Terkmani’s single bed.

Little did he realise that note had small bloodstains on it – blood that belonged to Mahmoud.

It was one of many pieces of circumstantial evidence that would bring Terkmani down.

In the Department of Housing property where Mahmoud’s body was found, police found a bloodied, stainless steel Breville toaster.

The blood belonged to Mahmoud and inside the toaster slots, police found Terkmani’s DNA.

During the trial, Crown prosecutor Adrian Robertson argued Terkmani’s DNA was also found on the rolling pin which Mahmoud was bludgeoned with.

He also explained Mahmoud was found with ligature marks on his neck and he was beaten so severely he was left with traumatic brain damage and fractured ribs and facial bones.

Police were never able to find Mahmoud’s pants or Nike shoes which Terkmani had stripped off him and disposed.

But not far from the house they found Mahmoud’s white iPhone dumped in a drain.

Police also obtained CCTV footage from Villawood McDonald’s and pinpointed the moment when Terkmani and Mahmoud picked up dinner at the drive-through at 6.22pm.

They also used phone records to show Terkmani and Mahmoud had spoken on the phone several times before meeting up.

Witnesses also gave evidence about seeing the pair on the night of the murder and they were last seen leaving a mutual friend’s house about 7.30pm.

This was the last time anyone saw Mahmoud alive.

WHAT THE JURY DID NOT HEAR

DURING the trial – which was held in Sydney’s historic King St court complex – the jury was shown a video of Terkmani as he walked into Fairfield police station.

But what they were not told was that Terkmani had been charged with serious drug supply offences and he was reporting for bail.

He strolled into the station about 4pm on the day of the murder wearing sunglasses, a white ­T-shirt and shorts.

These clothes were never found at Terkmani’s family home during the police search and it was the Crown case that he had disposed of these clothes after bashing Mahmoud to death.

Now convicted, The Daily Telegraph can reveal Terkmani was a known drug dealer and shortly after his arrest for Mahmoud’s murder he assaulted a fellow inmate at Parklea Correctional Centre.

Just before he stood trial for the murder of Mahmoud, he was sentenced to seven months’ jail after he was found guilty of causing actual bodily harm on August 8, 2015.

What the jury also did not know was that Terkmani was convicted for supplying drugs on an ongoing basis and was sentenced to a minimum 2 ½ year jail sentence in May last year.

And after he was released on bail, one of his strict conditions was that he was not to leave his house unless in the company of his father.

But the court heard Terkmani often left by himself and used the vacant house where he eventually killed Mahmoud to smoke cannabis, host gatherings and entertain escorts.

A LOVING FAMILY

FROM the moment Mahmoud went missing, his mother, father, brother, extended family and friends walked and drove the streets calling his name.

Maha Dunia drove to several of his friends’ houses honking her horn and screaming, “Mahmoud! Mahmoud!”

She drove to the police station and even McDonald’s asking the manager if they had seen her son and whether she could look at CCTV footage.

At one point she even called her son’s name outside Terkmani’s house after noticing his blue bicycle out the front.

Mahmoud’s father Azzam Hrouk even knocked on Terkmani’s door about 4.30am and asked him if he knew where his son was.

“I asked him, ‘Where is Mahmoud?’” Mr Hrouk recalled asking a few hours after his son went missing.

“He said, ‘Mahmoud who? I don’t know any Mahmouds’.”

Mr Hrouk continued: “I said to him, ‘Mahmoud Hrouk, that’s my son and I am his father’.”

Terkmani allegedly raised his voice and said, “So what do you want?”.

He wanted to bring his son home.

Yesterday Maha Dunia spoke to The Daily Telegraph, and said the past few days had been a blur.

But she giggled and laughed when talking about her Mahmoud – a former Granville Boys High School student who worked as a labourer, but was planning to go to TAFE to become a builder.

“All my kids mean the world to me but something was different about him,” she said.

“Mahmoud – he’s got a special place in my heart … he was the humble one and his laugh meant the world to me,” she said.

Aymen Terkmani will be sentenced by Justice Lucy McCallum later this year.