A man who stabbed his flatmate in the heart following a disagreement during a game of chess has been jailed for murder.

Appearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday (October 2) Massimo Fishti, aged 35, of Leyton High Road, was told he must serve a minimum of 21 years of a life sentence.

He was earlier found guilty of murdering Ioan Suditu, 40.

In the early hours of Saturday April 25, Fishti left his home with two friends, leaving Mr Suditu – who also lived at the address – and another friend playing a game of chess in the kitchen.

Fishti allegedly returned to the flat alone a short while later, “in an irate mood” and annoyed after being stopped by a homeless man who asked him for 50 pence.

He grabbed a knife from the kitchen and left the flat, only to return moments later placing it back on the kitchen worktop.

The court heard he disrupted the chess game being played by Mr Suditu with another flat mate and then threw the chess board in the air.

There was then an altercation between Fishti and Mr Suditu, after which Fishti left the kitchen and returned with a knife.

During a struggle between the two, Mr Suditu was stabbed in the chest.

Police were called at 3.33am but Fishti had left the flat before they arrived.

Officers who were first on scene found Mr Suditu unresponsive on the kitchen floor.

The London Ambulance Service attended the address but he was pronounced dead at the scene at 4.30am.

Fishti was arrested nearby at 4.45am and was later charged with Mr Suditu's murder.

A post-mortem held the day after at Walthamstow Mortuary gave the cause of death as a stab wound to the heart.

Iuliana Suditu, wife of Ioan Suditu, said: “I have been extremely affected by my husband's death.

“He was everything to me; he was the pillar of the family.”

Her son and daughter had been badly affected by the loss of their father, she said.

“My daughter keeps asking when is daddy going to come back?

“When will he call so that I can talk to him?

“What can I answer to these questions?”

She added: “My husband left for England so that he could work in a decent job, to save money so that we could join him there and was saving in order to rent a flat where we could live together from July 2015.

“Nothing in this world can replace my husband; neither can it bring him back.”

She thanked the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the court and jury for convicting Fishti for her husband’s murder.

“Our plans to be together until old age, to see together our children married, crumbled with my husband's death.

“As for the murderer, I am conscious that after serving his sentence he can hug his family, my children and I have been denied such a luxury, there is nobody there to cheer us up.”

Detective chief inspector Jamie Piscopo said: “What started as a peaceful game between friends ended tragically with a man losing his life.

“Fishti, who was unable to control his anger and annoyance, has callously taken away any chance of Mr Suditu's family ever seeing him again.”

He added: “I am pleased that the jury has found Fishti guilty of murder and I hope that today's conviction brings some comfort to Mr Suditu's family.”