Mother's relief after years of crushed hopes

The mother of Stephen Lawrence today described the "heart thumping" seconds she endured as the jury announced the verdicts.

Doreen Lawrence spent an anxious New Year as the jurors deliberated over three days.

Her worst moments were hearing the details of Stephen's wounds from the pathologist.

The experience was too harrowing for her daughter and Stephen's only sister. Georgina, now a young mother herself, was too traumatised to attend more than one day of the Old Bailey trial.

Her mother rang her with the news of the guilty verdicts soon after they were returned and she was "speechless". Mrs Lawrence said her daughter would never recover from the memory of seeing her mother in so much grief after the murder in April 1993 when Georgina was 10 years old.

Mrs Lawrence said that while awaiting the verdicts she had been fearful her hopes would be crushed again.

"I could feel my heart thumping and I was so shocked when the jury came back with guilty verdicts even though it was what I wanted to hear," she said.

"I felt myself well up straight away ... After the verdict I went home and lit a candle for Stephen and told him: 'At long last, we have justice'."