Since the shattering moment when their daughter Hannah was murdered, the lives of Hilary and Trevor Foster have been in limbo. Now, with killer Maninder Pal Singh Kohli behind bars, Hilary, Trevor and their youngest daughter Sarah will finally find the time and courage to think about where to scatter Hannah’s ashes.

Hilary told the Daily Echo: “It is something we have not been able to do. For the past five-and-a-half years we have been pulled emotionally this way and that. We have never fully been able to concentrate on the usual sort of things bereaved people do.

“We have often talked about our life being in limbo. We have not been able to make any plans as a family. Although we have tried to get some normality back, the whole saga has been stretched out by his persistence to avoid facing justice. We have not thought of where we want to scatter Hannah’s ashes and that is something we must now take time to contemplate.”

Hilary doesn’t believe they will ever have “closure” and questions if the day will ever come when they will be able to cope with looking at pictures of Hannah again, or hanging them on their walls.

She added: “Maybe now, this will be a chance to face our grief. We realise we are never going to get Hannah back.

“I don’t like the word closure. But maybe it is the right word in terms of our closure on him, his movements, from our dealings with the police. We want him out of our lives and to get back to being a private family.”

Trevor, who spoke after the verdict of his anger that Kohli would not end his life behind bars, said that lessons must now be learned to prevent another family facing the frustrations they have. He said: “It’s been frustrating but the police deserve some credit. They have thrown resources at this. They did not stop. Now they need this message out there – that things do eventually turn full circle. You can run, but you can’t hide. You can’t just flee the country and literally get away withmurder. We were the test case and, yes, lots of things could have been done differently in hindsight. I hope lessons have been learned so that the next family who goes through this – and there will be another – gets things done differently, quicker.

“People in authority all need to play their part, talk to their counterparts, prepare for the fact it may happen again and do something positive to help. You hope people are looking at this, that there is feedback. We need the powers that be to say ‘What can we learn from this?’ and ‘How can we do better?’”