Click here to listen to "Life with Josie"

In a special BBC radio diary broadcast on Radio 4, Dr Russell, who now lives with Josie in North Wales, praised his "strong-minded little girl" who survived a brutal hammer attack.

Although she initially lost the ability to speak, she later managed to give police vital details that led to the conviction of Michael Stone.

In "Living with Josie", her father described his emotions from the time he was told of the murders to just hours before the jury found Stone guilty.

Dr Russell recalled how on the night of 9 July 1996 he was initially told his entire family had been killed. It was not until 6am the following morning that he learned one daughter was still alive.

At first he thought it might be Megan because the hospital had said she had shoulder-length hair. "I could tell instantly it was [Josie] because of the freckles on her nose which Megan didn't have."

Days later, he describes going to the mortuary to see the bodies of Lin and Megan. He said it was "the worst thing I have ever done".

'No chance to grieve'

He spent the next few frantic days at Kings College Hospital where Josie lay critically ill, at media conferences and police interviews.

"I didn't have a chance to grieve about Lin and Megan but they came constantly in front of my eyes, day and night."

"I cried myself to sleep for months since the day of the tragedy."

Almost two months after the attack, Josie had to have an operation to close a nine-inch hole in her head.

But she was reluctant to go as her first experience of hospital was very frightening.

Her father said hospital murals of white and palomino ponies similar to her own Welsh ponies terrified her. "She freaked out when she saw these and would scream and cry uncontrollably."

He finally realised that she thought she had lost them as well as and that her whole world seemed alien.

Her father was worried she would miss the appointment for a second operation.

But at the last moment she simply walked down the hospital corridor saying, "let's go" and went straight into the operating theatre.

Fear of physical contact

Since the attack, Josie has been more reticent about showing affection with adults.

Dr Russell talked of how Josie, now 11, is still wary of men, including her father, more than two years after the hammer attack.

"She has a natural aversion to physical contact with a grown man, even her own dad."

Josie has never told her father any details about her ordeal.

Although he admits an overwhelming desire to find out why the tragedy occurred, Dr Russell said: "I don't want to know the last intimate, gory details."

He said she was perhaps protecting him from all that.

Unbearable wait

Dr Russell described the strain placed on them by Stone's trial and the wait for the verdict.

He told the diary: "The jury have now been out for all of yesterday and the end of the day before. It's terrible waiting.

"It's just a continuous stream of adrenaline going into your system keeping you trembling on tenterhooks the whole time, waiting for that phone call to come through."

He greeted the resulting conviction with "massive relief" tinged with sadness at the loss of Lin and Megan.

But Josie's survival had shown him the "amazing powers of recovery the body has - the body and the mind".

He said: "I now devote my life to looking after her."

Although Dr Russell has managed to create a relatively normal life for his daughter with the help of friends, teachers and the police, they still have to face the media.

Josie shies away at the idea of interviews. "She is far more concerned that it will intrude on her personal playtime than any more deep worries that I'm aware of," said her father.

"Once they were here and Josie was performing - in all senses of the word - she has us round her little finger _ she'd order everybody around in every direction and she'd show me up in front of people because it was her one chance to do so," he said, laughing.

"She's a very strong-minded little girl."