Perhaps the biggest tragedy of all in the Lady in the Lake case is the impact on the Parks's three children, Vanessa, Jeremy and Rachel.

Vanessa Park (now Fisher) has had to endure what must be the unique agony of having two mothers murdered by two father figures.

In 1969, when she was just a year old, her natural mother Christine Price Carol Park's sister - was strangled in 1969 by her father John Rapson. She was swiftly adopted by Carol and Gordon but then when she was eight her new mother disappeared. As we know now, she had been battered to death by her husband.

Vanessa, now 36, has understandably chosen to keep out of the limelight in order not to dwell on her traumatic past. A talented horse whisperer, she takes comfort in being around horses.

Family friends say that "exclusive interviews" with Vanessa that appeared in three national newspapers were in fact cobbled together from statements in court and from others' comments.

"It is very, very hard for a young lady who has lost two mothers to murderers," says her uncle Ivor Price.

What cut deepest during the trial were submissions from Gordon Park's defence suggesting Rapson could have been the man who murdered Carol Park.

"I was disgusted that Park could go down that route, to destroy his daughter, for Vanessa's sake as well as mine, for no reason," complained Mr Price. "The police have never had Rapson in the frame. It was just a get-out to con the jury."

Vanessa was apparently frozen out by the Park family during the trial. Gordon Park testified that Christmas presents from her had gone unopened. He had also refused to talk to her, explaining on the witness stand that this was because she was "talking to Ivor and other people who would like to see me behind bars".

Vanessa testified that she could not remember going to Blackpool in the summer, the crucial trip Park claimed he was on when Carol "disappeared". She also described her father as "strict" and said he would occasionally hit them with a stick.

Yet Jeremy Park, who was six at the time, said he remembered "feeling rejected" because his mother would not come to Blackpool and recalled riding the White Mouse rollercoaster. He failed to recall these details and the entire Blackpool trip in police interviews in 1997.

Jeremy, 34, also said that his "loving father" had never used anything other than his hand to discipline the children even though Gordon Park himself admitted to occasionally using a stick.

Similarly Rachel Park, now Garcia, denied Park had hit them and said "police had put words in her mouth" when she told them they had been lined up and hit with a belt.

One friend recalled Park was extremely tough on the children. He would use an egg timer at meal times, threatening to hit the children if they did not eat up in time. Another said Park knotted up the family's phone because he was fed-up of high phone bills, forcing them to use the phone box in the village.

As the guilty verdict was handed down to their father, Jeremy looked shell-shocked while Rachel sobbed into the shoulder of her husband. What feelings fuelled their grief we cannot know until they feel able to talk about it. Was it the loss of their father to prison or a dawning realisation that he might have lied to them for almost their entire life?

A family friend hoped the three Park siblings might eventually reconcile their differences and support each other.

She said: "It might take five or ten years but they know Vanessa is the big sister. Last year Jeremy said even if Dad goes down we will still keep in contact'."