“We burst into tears when he was found guilty, and they were tears of relief,” Kaileigh’s older sister Stacey Ballantine said shortly after proceedings wound up.

“It has been a long week, and we have been there since last Monday.

“His (Michael John Severino’s) lawyer was trying to say that Kaileigh was driving the car and we didn’t want her name being used like that.

“It was really horrible but the jury realised it wasn’t true.”