A WIDOW today said she felt a huge sense of relief after watching her husband's murderer caged for life for his brutal killing.

And she said life imprisonment was a 'just reward' for Gavin Cox, found guilty of the savage and fatal assault on Bryan 'Joe' Platt.

After a 13-day hearing spanning three weeks, the 19 members of his family could not contain their relief as the jury came back to deliver their verdict after three-and-a-quarter hours of deliberation.

When the foreman said: "Guilty", they cheered.

Audrey Platt, of Sycamore Close, Burnley, wept when the verdict was read out and said later: "I am relieved that the trial is over and justice has been done.

"Cox has got his just reward for the way he treated my husband.

"I want to thank the police and the Crown Prosecution Service for their hard work in bringing him to court. The solicitors and barristers for the way they conducted the case and, most of all, the support I have received from family and friends during the past eight months.

" I could not have coped without my son Tony and his wife Jane and my daughter Lesley in Australia".

Mr Platt, 74, was murdered at his workplace, Calder Marketing, Nunnhills Mill, Blackwood Road, Stacksteads, on February 10 by Cox, 25, of Park Road, Waterfoot.

Mr Platt was struck about the head with an iron bar, sustaining 43 head and neck injuries, 36 of which were serious and one more than nine inches long which went from his eye to the back of his head. Cox told police in his interview that during the struggle he squirted a fire extinguisher in the old man's face because "he kept on coming back at me".

Mrs Platt described the hours waiting for the jury to reach a decision as the longest in her life. The family played Connect Four while waiting in an ante room waiting to take their mind off what was happening.

And when that call came, Mrs Platt said she felt sick until she heard the verdict. Then, she said: "I felt elated and a huge sense of relief.

"I did not expect the trial to take so long and don't think I could have continued into another week."

She said her husband would never have given up work in spite of his age because he loved it so much.

But the trial has taken its toll. Mr Platt's younger brother suffered a heart attack part-way through the hearing and is now in a coma at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport.

Mrs Platt said he was very poorly, but his son has visited him every night to tell him how the case was progressing and he had now been told the verdict.

She has a large family who have proved a great source of comfort and support. When she and Joe celebrated their golden wedding anniversary she said 120 relatives attended.

Mrs Platt said she now hoped she could start to pick up the pieces and put her life back together.

She added: "The trial has helped me come to terms with what has happened. Before it had always seemed as though it had happened to someone else. Now I must face the future without my Joe."

Sarah Bugat, 32, formerly of Church Street, Stacksteads, was cleared of handling stolen property said to have belonged to Mr Platt.

Cox had accused Paul Greatholder, 43, of Bacup Road, Rawtenstall, of carrying out the murder. Greatholder had earlier admitted to attempting to pervert the course of justice. Cox's clothing had been washed at Greatholder's flat and Greatholder had admitted to setting fire to Mr Platt's Proton car, stolen from the mill.

His admission had been on the grounds that he was unaware Cox had committed an act of violence.

Pre-sentence and psychiatric reports are expected to be ready next Friday when sentencing will be made. Greatholder was remanded in custody.