AS MICHAEL Stone faces a lifetime in jail, his sister has vowed to carry on the fight to clear his name. Stone has been found guilty for the second time of the brutal murders of Dr Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan, and the attempted murder of Josie Russell.

Stone's sister, Barbara, exclaimed "not again" when the verdicts were returned and later vehemently maintained her older brother's innocence. She stressed: "We will be talking to his defence team and Kent police can look over their shoulders. We'll be fighting for his freedom. There will be no let up."

On the Russell family, she said: "I believe they are entitled to the same sort of justice. There can be no comfort for them knowing that an innocent man is in prison. I do not believe my brother had a fair trial. I cannot accept the verdict."

Stone, 41, from Gillingham, was found guilty of viciously attacking Dr Russell, 45, and her daughters with a hammer as they walked along a country lane with their dog at Chillenden, near Canterbury, in 1996.

Dr Russell and Megan died after being bound and gagged with pieces of swimming towel and then bludgeoned to death with a hammer. Josie, then only nine, survived after undergoing emergency neurosurgery and was eventually able to give her account of the attacks to police.

The jury spent 10-and-a-half hours deliberating over the verdicts and returned majority decisions of 10-2 on all three counts.