IT’S difficult to say for sure because I never knew her, but there seems to be a lot of her mother in Caitlin Marsh.

She is feisty, she has a wicked sense of humour, is fiercely independent and knows her own mind.

She is determined to succeed in her chosen profession – journalism.

“Both Terry and I are doing what mum would want us to do, which is to get on with our lives and take every opportunity that comes along.

"It’s hard to second guess what someone who is no longer around would think and mum only knew me as a child.

“She’ll never be there on the day we get married or have children.

“She wasn’t there when I did my GSCEs, so there’s a lot she will miss and has missed, but that doesn’t stop Terry and me from being determined to do well in life and achieve everything we might have hoped to do, had she still been here.

“She did so much with us, she took us out and encouraged us to do well at school and enjoy ourselves, she absolutely loved life and was such a fun person to know and be around. There was never a dull day with mum.”

Caitlin was very pleased that emails written by Heather were read out during the trial by Stephen Climie, the prosecution’s number two, because they gave a hint of who she was.

“There were a couple of jurors who laughed at the jokes in them which broke up the seriousness. But also it was nice to have the words of someone who couldn’t be in court to speak for herself.

“It was a little bit of the person she was and I think they could relate to that. Also it reminds everyone that my mum was a real person and who lived but now doesn’t.

“This was not just a case study or a crime programme like CSI in which the story is over when the programme ends. This is about real people and real lives.

“At the front of the jury bundle there is a picture of mum and the jurors have seen that every day. To go back and hear her own words and a little of her personality, that was important.

“The whole court was completely silent when mum’s word were being read, everyone was really listening because this was her.”

“I don’t want to sit around and feel sad. It is an injustice that this has happened but that doesn’t stop me carrying on with life, trying to make her proud and Terry and I growing up to be adults that mum would respect and be glad to call her children.

“In the same way that I am proud to call her my mum.”