'Justice has been done'

And she said life imprisonment was a 'just reward' for murderer Gavin Cox following the killing of her husband Bryan 'Joe' Platt.

After a 13-day hearing spanning three weeks, the 19 members of Mr Platt's 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.

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

"Cox earned a 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 my family and friends for the past eight months.

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

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 was more than 9ins long and went from his eye to the back of his head.

During the struggle, Cox told police in his interview 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 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 who 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 members of the family attended. Mrs Platt said she hoped now she could start to pick the pieces up 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 have to face the future, now that I know it's 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. Pre-sentence and psychiatric reports are expected to be ready next Friday when sentencing will be made and Greatholder was remanded in custody.

A detective for more than 20 years described the murder of Mr Platt as "one of the worst examples of violence" that he had ever come across.

A total of 100 officers investigated the murder with 20 scenes of crime officers' investigating the eight sites, which had connections to the murder. Det Insp Tony Ronnan said: "In my experience it is one of the worst examples of violence that I have come across when you take into account the extent of the injuries and the age of the victim." Sentencing Cox to life Justice Michael Harrison said: "The jury have found you guilty of murdering Mr Platt. A 74-year-old man who was a caretaker at the mill where you were committing a burglary.

"You subjected him to a brutal and violent beating, hitting him on the head probably with an iron bar causing terrible injuries to his skull resulting in his death.

"You are aged 25 and you have been before the courts on some nine previous occasions normally for offences of dishonesty most of these for burglar although there was an assault causing actual bodily harm. There is really very little that can be said for you." THE quiet village of Stacksteads was stunned by news of the murder of Bryan 'Joe' Platt.

He had been a familiar figure in the village having worked for Calder Marketing for nine years at Nunnhills Mill, Blackwood Road.

Stacksteads Councillor Michael McShea remembers clearly when the news of what had happened broke.

He said: "I can remember many of the older people in Stacksteads stopping me and saying how shocked they felt and that they were wondering what was happening to our village if something like this can happen.

"It was a terrible shock to the whole community. We are a close-knit community in Stacksteads."

The mill had already hit the headlines a few months earlier when there was a fire in a section of the mill leased by owner David Beattie, Mr Platt's employer, to Dougie Thompson for his business Stylegleam.

Coun McShea said: "Before the police arrested those responsible there was a lot of concern in the village and the police presence was very high. "Blackwood Road was sealed off for a week and one man whose works' van had been parked in that area was not able to move his vehicle because it was in the middle of a crime scene.

"I think the police did a very good job catching who did this and they also did a very good public relations job visiting people in the area, going to the local shops and talking to people in the area and putting people's mind at ease."

Owner of Something Fishy chip shop Christine Lamb remembers Joe from when she used to run a grocer's and he would come in for his cigarettes.

She said: "He was really quiet and kept himself to himself. He never entered into much conversation, he would just talk about the weather but he seemed a nice chap. Everybody knew where he worked and he would call in to the Commercial and have the odd pint.

"I had been in the chippy at 5pm on February 10 when I saw all these police sealing off Blackwood Road.

"From where we live above the shop we can see out on to the mill site and there were all these people in white overalls just like on the TV programmes.

"Rumours were flying round that someone had been killed and when we got to find out who it was everyone was horrified. This is such a quiet place things like that don't happen here.

"At that time Church Street was a bad place full of druggies and they used to use the telephone box.

"Church Street has improved now and quietened down and I think the druggies seem to have moved on."

Christine told how when residents got to hear about what had happened they gave police standing guard flowers to be placed in a shrine for Joe outside the mill.