A 61-year-old Co Tyrone man was yesterday cleared of murdering schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson, who disappeared without trace over a decade ago.
Relatives of the 15-year-old schoolgirl left the court in tears as the foreman of the Belfast Crown Court jury announced their "not guilty" verdict by a majority of 10 to two.
It had taken the jury of nine men and three women more than 23 hours over six days to acquit Robert Lesarian Howard, formerly of Main Street in Castlederg.
Last Thursday they also cleared Mr Howard of getting his former lover's daughter to lie for him about being out with Arlene and her friends.
The prosecution had claimed that Mr Howard was the last person to see Arlene alive after she and friends had gone across the Border to a disco in the Co Donegal resort of Bundoran on the night she disappeared, August 13th, 1994.
During the trial the prosecution had also branded Mr Howard as a "cunning and deceptive" liar who presented police with a "false picture" in an effort to eliminate himself from their investigation.
Crown lawyer Kieran Murphy had contended that Mr Howard "had the opportunity to kill her (Arlene) and dispose of the body, which despite extensive searches has never been found".
However, by their verdicts the jury accepted defence claims that they could not be sure that the schoolgirl was indeed dead, or if dead, that Mr Howard was involved in her murder.
During the month-long trial the jury heard that Arlene was spotted in Warrington, England getting on a bus and thumbing a lift along a lonely Co Derry road in the weeks and months following her disappearance.
Witnesses also claimed they recognised Arlene in Bangor, Co Down and in a Co Antrim nightclub from photographs released by police during a "media blitz" in the aftermath of her disappearance.
Barry McDonald, defending, had branded the prosecution case as "all speculation", declaring, "there's just no limit to the speculation that one could engage in".
All that is known is that the schoolgirl had disappeared, although the defence acknowledged she could indeed be dead.
However, Mr McDonald contended that rather than dying at the hands of Mr Howard, "she could have committed suicide - could have jumped off a ferry and been claimed by the sea - we just do not know".