CLAPPING and cheering broke out in the Court of Appeal in Belfast yesterday when Mr Patrick Kane (39) was cleared of involvement in the murder of two British army corporals in Belfast in 1988.
Mr Kane himself was not in court to hear the verdict as the prison van bringing him from the Maze was held up in traffic. His elderly parents, Barney and Maureen, were hugged by their other children as they waited for him to arrive.
"It's the happiest day of my life," said Mrs Kane, of Tullymore Walk, Andersonstown, west Belfast. "We waited eight years for this day and I just can't wait to take my big son home."
Her husband said: "We knew all along that Patrick was innocent and that kept us going. You could say that today has restored my faith in justice."
When Mr Kane eventually arrived he was mobbed by relatives and friends chanting: "You're free, Paddy, you're free."
Clearly overcome with emotion Mr Kane said: "I just kept hoping and praying that this day would come. It is thanks to my legal team that I am standing here. But there are two other men, Mickey Timmons and Sean Kelly, who should be here with me. Justice has been done for me but not for them.
"I had to wait nearly nine years. How much longer will Mickey and Sean have to wait before they are freed?"
Mr Kane was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1990 along with Timmons and Kelly for aiding and abetting in the murders of Cpls Derek Wood and David Howes during an IRA funeral.
The trio became known as the Casement Three because it was alleged they were in the sports ground when the soldiers were beaten and stripped before being taken away and shot by the IRA.
The Casement Three lost their appeals, but Mr Kane's case was referred back to the Appeal Court by the former NI secretary, Lord Mayhew, after campaigners raised doubts about his confession.
Lord Justice McCollum, announcing the unanimous verdict of the court, made it clear that it had been persuaded to overturn the verdict of the trial judge by the evidence of Dr Gisli Gudjonsson, a renowned forensic psychologist from Norway.
During the appeal last month the three judges ruled that Dr Gudjonsson's evidence on Mr Kane's mental and psychological state was relevant - he was said to have the mind of an 11-year-old child and admissible.
"The court has come to the conclusion that if the trial judge had had the benefit of hearing it then it would have had a considerable influence on his consideration of the admissibility and reliability of the confessions made by the appellant," said the judge.
"We are not satisfied that the judge would have admitted the confession or relied upon it if he had had the benefit of Dr Gudjonsson's evidence.
"Accordingly, we regard the conviction as unsafe and quash it."