"Our family would like to thank our friends and the wider community for the support that has been shown to us over the last fourteen and a half years, especially in what has been a sometimes harrowing last eight weeks.
Our thanks to Philip and Ben for such great work in presenting the case, and to Marc, Gary and all the Operation Spring team for their hard work over the last eighteen months in preparing the case.
We would also like to thank the families of the prosecution and investigation team for putting up with the long hours spent away from their loved ones.
To the members of the original investigation, Operation Winter, I would like to say that this backs up everything you did so long ago and well done, you got it right.
It has been a long hard road to get to where we are now, and we can only hope that this means we can have some closure and that the most important people in all of this, Christine and Amber, have got justice and can finally rest in peace.
Thank you.
We do not wish to comment any further and ask the media to respect our request for privacy."
ENDS