IT was the word Vikki Thompson’s family had waited 15 years to hear: ‘Guilty’.

Mark Weston, 35, was yesterday convicted of murdering Mrs Thompson in Ascott-under-Wychwood in 1995.

They have been long and painful years for the family. It was Mrs Thompson’s husband Jonathan who found her dying by a railway embankment.

Yesterday Weston was given the mandatory life sentence, with Mr Justice Bean telling him he will spend a minimum of 13 years inside.

Outside Reading Crown Court, Mrs Thompson’s widower said: “Today justice has been done.

“It has taken over 15 years to arrive at this point but finally we have justice for Vikki and we are grateful for that.

“It has taken a change in the double jeopardy law and an advancement in DNA technology and a lot of hard work from the police. Justice has been done in court but, ultimately, there is no justice in death.

“Mark Weston will be looked after in prison. Vikki is never coming back.

“The death of a loved one torments those who are left and it is worse when it is in such horrendous circumstances as this.

“When Mark Weston killed my wife and the mother of our two children he took a part of me and them that will never come back. We have to live with that.

“So, there is no such thing as closure for us. Today marks the end of a chapter and we are pleased with the result but, while Mark Weston will one day be a free man, we will never be free of the unbearable anguish that he brought to us on that day in 1995.

“Finally, I want to thank Pete Beirne in particular and the Thames Valley Police for all the diligent work. They never gave up and they are the unsung heroes today.”

Calling the evidence which finally convicted Weston as compelling, Mr Justice Bean said: “I accept that there is no evidence of this crime having been pre-meditated but that fact is balanced out by the brutal and prolonged nature of the attack one it began.