THE RUSSELL MURDERS: 'I remember the terrible image in the mortuary'

Father Speaks to Press

SHAUN RUSSELL was dignified to the end. He pitied Michael Stone, his troubled childhood, sympathised with the task of the jury and thanked the police.

But after words of the utmost moderation, he broke down and sobbed as he told how Josie was asking him for a dog to replace her pet Lucy, who was also killed in the attack.

"She remembers Lucy as also having been killed," he said, finally overcoming to the emotion of the day.

"She knows she will never get her mother and sister back, but she might get her dog back."

Dr Russell was not in court for the three-week trial, but had been kept in touch by police and returned to Kent for the end of the case. He, in turn, broke the news to Josie. She said simply but with emphasis: "Good."

He said he felt relief that it was all over at last and that the verdict had been a good one. But sadness followed the initial elation - "Sadness at what we've all lost and the fact that you can't regain what you've lost".

It would have been shattering, he said, if Stone had been cleared. "I would have been terribly upset from the point of view of the authorities who put so much into this case and worried about having to go back to Josie living her life in limbo again.

"As it is, I've had the panic button just like two years ago before Michael Stone was caught."

Dr Russell was asked how he reacted when he was told the news of the verdict.

"I was with Pauline Smith [the police liaison officer who has helped him and Josie over the last two years] and I gave her a big hug. Then I went away to the bedroom and I just broke down and cried."

He also felt anger. "I rang my late wife's parents and the sense of desolation and loss in their voices was something that reminded me they have lost their only daughter, they can't get her back again.

"I've lost my wife and daughter, Josie has lost her mother and sister. They'll never come back again."

He spoke of how it had been terrible during the trial to hear witnesses recall how Stone had called his wife, Lin, and daughters "slags" and "whores".

"I guess you can imagine it's not very nice hearing your most loved ones being referred to as slags and whores by people in public.

"And one thing I can never forgive Michael Stone for is when I try to remember my wife and daughter the terrible image of them in the mortuary lying side by side comes back to me first. I hope in time that can recede."

He thanked the police and the Crown Prosecution Service for their "vast effort" and all the people who have supported him and Josie in the last couple of years.

He also thanked the jury. "Just recently I've tried to put myself in their minds. I can't believe how difficult it must be for them."

As a scientist he said he worked on the balance of probabilities and he knew the law did not work like that.

Dr Russell had been privy to a lot more evidence than the jury had been given and had at first felt frustrated that some of it had not been allowed to be heard in court. So there had always been a "niggling doubt" that Stone would be cleared.

But, Dr Russell said, the most important thing now was Josie's future and whether she would ever be able to have a normal life.

He began his remarks to the press conference by saying: "I have been so keyed up - I am still shaking after what the week has been like.

"The relief has just been so massive and the elation has slowly been draining away as I have driven here."

Before returning to Kent for the end of the case, he had been having meetings about Josie's reading, writing and speech with which she is still struggling. He will return home to Wales to more discussions on that.

But these problems aside, she was a "little girl who is happy with the life we've given her". And he continued: "She's more interested in just having fun as little girls of her age normally do."

Asked how he coped and who looked after him, Dr Russell smiled sadly.

He said: "Josie is the one who keeps me on track. She is a handful enough for any parent, but my mum is also very good and I have got lots of friends and relatives who are also helping me."

The investigation and the court case had sometimes meant that his daughter had to relive the horror, Dr Russell said. Just before the case started, she had to sign a statement avowing the truth of the video evidence she had given. She preferred not to have to speak about the attack, and seemed fed up, as much as anything else, at having to do so.

None the less, she did sometimes speak of her mother, and sister. "She's not got any problem with talking about Lin and Megan. When we look at photographs or if anything comes up in our daily lives about them, she has no hang-ups or anything."

It was at this point that Dr Russell finally broke down.