The lawyers for Chris Kahui say despite a jury finding their client not guilty of the murder of his twin sons Chris and Cru two years ago, they are not celebrating.
Mr Kahui's lawyers Lorraine Smith, a grandmother, and Michele (crct) Wilkinson-Smith, a mother of three young children, have spent the past two years working on Mr Kahui's defence.
Today the lawyers walked from the High Court in Auckland, flanking their client as he faced the media, after a jury took just 10 minutes to find him not guilty of the 2006 murder of his twin sons.
Mrs Smith, who took on a self-appointed maternal role over Mr Kahui for the past two years, was devastated when last year, after being granted bail to a small town in Northland, people from the local marae physically blocked him from staying at the court-appointed address.
As lawyers, media and members of the public waited for the jury to return its verdict this afternoon Mrs Smith went into the court cells to have a final few minutes in private with Mr Kahui, before he was brought before the court to hear his fate.
Mrs Smith told media outside the court the verdict felt wonderful. "It's been two years of full-on work and we are very tired."
Mrs Smith would not be drawn on what the vital factor in the verdicts was. "Unless you are in the jury room you don't know."
Mrs Smith said she was not prepared to discuss what Mr Kahui's plans would be.
"That's private and not something we should discuss with the media. He's a very private person.
"He doesn't want us to discuss his life, but he wants to move on and he will."
Mrs Wilkinson-Smith - the lawyers are not related but are often asked if they are mother and daughter - told media when she first received the phone call from the registrar they thought the jury had a question, not a verdict.
"It was a very quick verdict."
The verdict was the right one, she said. "But we are not celebrating. It's a horrible, horrible tragedy over the last two years."
Mrs Wilkinson-Smith, who had many exchanges with the three crown prosecutors over the questioning of the more than 60 witnesses, denied the verdict showed the crown had no case.
"I think it shows in many ways that the system works. The crown put their case up, we answered it.
"That's how the system is supposed to work and it worked."
The lawyers admitted they were surprised at the speed of the verdict though.
Mrs Wilkinson-Smith said it had been a long trial and the jurors had a lot of time to talk.
"Really I think they had plenty of time to talk about the issues. There's been a lot of time when they have been out.
"They had an hour and a half between the summing up and the closing addresses. They have been together a long time and they were able to make a decision quickly and that was all there was to it."
When asked how long it would take for Mr Kahui, who has been inundated with media requests for interviews and has not seen his three-year-old son Shane for the past two years, to get his life back, Mrs Wilkinson-Smith said she had no idea.
"I think he has coped with remarkable dignity for a young guy during this and I think he has done really well and now he just needs time to regroup and get his head around the fact that he is not on bail any more and he's a free man again."
Mr Kahui had been a "remarkably easy client to deal with".
Mrs Wilkinson-Smith said she was very relieved the trial was over. "It was an emotional trial.
"There are two babies dead and nobody is gloating.
"I think the result was the right result."
Mrs Wilkinson-Smith said despite the verdict for her client, it remained a tragic case. "But it's the end of the case from our point of view."
