It was an accident. Those two boys wouldn't hurt anyone, they are not those sort of boys Anthony Williams, co-defendant

Relatives sobbed and screamed. Hancock buried his head in his hands and gasped: "Oh, my God!" and burst into tears. Shankland stood with his head bowed.

His girlfriend, Carol Hopkins, fainted and collapsed and was carried out from the courtroom.

Passing sentence, the judge Mr Justice Michael Mann acknowledged the miners' strike had "engendered a climate of violence" that had led to the killing of Mr Wilkie. But he concluded: "You performed the ultimate act of violence and for it you will go to prison for life."

Concrete block hurled at taxi

During the trial the jury had heard that in the early hours of 30 November 1984, Shankland and Hancock had planned to disrupt a police escort and taxi taking miner David Williams to the Merthyr Vale pit.

They hurled a 46lb concrete block and a concrete post weighing 65lbs from a bridge over the Head of the Valleys Rd at Rhymner.

It fell on the taxi and its driver was killed within seconds from head and chest injuries. The passenger, Mr Williams, was unhurt but deeply traumatised.

Mr Wilkie leaves behind four children, the youngest of whom was born two months after his death.

After the verdicts, Shankland's lawyer John Prosser QC said that his clients were victims in "a nation at war".

Referring to strike leaders like Arthur Scargill, head of the National Union of Miners, he said: "In that war there were generals, and they stood outside the law and they left Russell Shankland outside the law."

A third defendant, Anthony Williams, who was on the bridge with the two men was cleared of all charges yesterday. As he left the court today he told journalists: "It was an accident. Those two boys wouldn't hurt anyone, they are not those sort of boys."

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