Stuart Campbell was found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court today of abducting and murdering his 15-year-old niece Danielle Jones.
He was found guilty after an 11-week trial. Her body has never been recovered. Campbell, 44, a builder of Grays, Essex, had denied abducting and murdering Danielle.
Danielle vanished on June 18th, 2001, after setting off from her home in East Tilbury, Essex, to walk to a nearby school bus stop.
Prosecutors said Campbell had been fixated with Danielle and was having an inappropriate and probably unlawful relationship with her.
He was said to be obsessed with teenage girls and jurors heard from a number of young women who told how Campbell had approached them in the street and sometimes persuaded them to return to his home and be photographed in various states of undress.
It emerged after the trial that Campbell, whose hobbies include bodybuilding and karate, had a criminal record stretching back to 1970.
He was given a 12-month suspended jail term in 1989 after holding a 14-year-old girl against her will at his home and photographing her in a karate suit.
Campbell had originally been charged with abducting the girl and taking indecent pictures of her. That charge was dropped after he admitted an offence of taking a child without lawful authority.
In 1976 he had been given a four-year jail sentence after being convicted of robbing a 16-year-old girl in the street.
Campbell's second wife Debbie is the sister of Danielle's father, Tony Jones. He met Debbie when he was 23 and she was 15.
PA