The attacks took place at a cemetery in Charlton, south-east London on 17 March last year.

The trio, aged 14, 16, and 17, were found guilty of one charge of conspiracy to commit religiously aggravated criminal damage.

They admitted causing the desecration but claimed the attacks were not motivated by religion.

The conviction is believed to be the first of its kind in Britain.

You must each understand that you have been convicted by the jury of a serious offence Judge Lindsay Burn

Thirty-four graves of Turkish Muslims had been "deliberately desecrated", with headstones knocked over and photographs shattered with a hammer.

The attacks, in which children's graves were among those damaged, provoked outrage in the community and residents phoned police to offer to help trace those involved.

Adjourning sentence until 11 March, Judge Lindsay Burn told the teenagers: "You must each understand that you have been convicted by the jury of a serious offence."

He told the teenagers they would be allowed bail on condition they do not enter the cemetery.

Det Ch Insp Clive Driscoll, of Scotland Yard's Racial and Violent Crime Task Force, said relatives of the deceased "were shocked" and "distressed".

The six-man, six-woman jury took less than six hours to agree a unanimous verdict at the end of the five-day trial.

It was the second to be held after another jury failed to reach verdicts.