If I'd been on that jury I think I'd have been one of the two against the 10 who thought he was guilty

Dr Shaun Russell

But in an interview with the Daily Mail, Dr Russell said that he would not have found Stone guilty.

"All the way through there's been this niggling doubt," Dr Russell told the Daily Mail.

"If I'd been on that jury I think I'd have been one of the two against the 10 who thought he was guilty.

No anger

"I couldn't have said 100% that he killed Lin and Megan, and while there is that doubt I cannot direct my anger or hatred towards him."

A jury at Nottingham Crown Court found Stone guilty on all three counts.

The court had heard how he bludgeoned Lin and Megan Russell to death with a hammer and left Josie for dead in the attack in a country lane in Chillenden, near Canterbury, on 9 July 1996.

Their pet dog was also killed.

Double killer Michael Stone

Mr Russell said he was left with the lingering doubt because Stone had not admitted his guilt.

Mr Russell told the newspaper that prison officers, who know 41-year-old Stone, said he "acts like a man who has been wrongfully accused" and thinks of both himself and the Russells as victims.

Instead Dr Russell said he would have to "lock it all away in my head and get on with life".

He also revealed that he had found love with one of his late wife's closest friends, Primmy, who lived next to him and 14-year-old Josie in Wales.

"I've found my soulmate and we're going to spend the rest of our lives together, no matter what happens," he told the Mail.

Following the verdict he said that nothing would bring back his wife and daughter but that he and his surviving daughter had to now face the future with hope not bitterness.