Reaction in court: A single word, uttered in a whisper that betrayed sober relief and weary gratitude that justice had at last been done, greeted the verdict that pronounced Ian Huntley guilty of murdering Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. "Yes."
It resounded around the high wood-panelled walls of the Old Bailey's Court Number One but it did not ease the tension or the overwhelming sense of tragedy that had been palpable throughout the one-month trial.
Moments earlier, just before midday, the jury had filed back into the court after deliberating the fate of Huntley and Maxine Carr for 17½ hours over four days.
As Mr Justice Moses took his place at the bench, the nervous shuffling of the public gallery ceased and the tension turned to expectation.
Huntley (29) sat stony-faced in the dock, staring straight ahead and fiddling absent-mindedly with a button on his jacket, as the foreman of the jury stood and read out the majority verdicts that brought with them two life sentences. Guilty on both counts of child murder.
Carr (26), separated from Huntley in the dock by a uniformed prison official seated between them, looked at the floor, only raising her head slightly when she was pronounced guilty on the third count against her, that of lying to provide Huntley with an alibi for the night he murdered the 10- year-old friends.
She was found not guilty of aiding an offender as the jury accepted that she did not know, at the time she lied about her whereabouts, that Huntley murdered the two girls she had taught at school.
As they had throughout the trial, the families of Holly and Jessica maintained a stoic solemnity that earned them the admiration of the judge and of the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who praised the "tremendous dignity" they showed throughout the 16 months since their daughters disappeared.
Leslie and Sharon Chapman and Kevin and Nicola Wells have spent most of the past 30 days in court, often with their surviving children, providing a solid presence balancing the horrific evidence they were presented with.
Yet they still do not know exactly how or why their daughters died.
While they let out little under the constant glare of almost 100 journalists and a packed public gallery, after the verdicts were announced there were silent tears as a box of tissues was passed along the bench the families shared and Mrs Wells put her arm around her son Oliver.
Only Oliver gave a hint of any emotion beside relief; he looked at his parents and smiled.
It was only hours later, during a press conference, that any of the family members hinted at the hatred and anger that has consumed them as they sat in the court knowing that Huntley had long been suspected as a child sex abuser and yet he had been permitted to come into close contact with their daughters.