Kevin Bocquet: The judge found the case unspeakable and "totally pathetic"

A jury at Manchester Crown Court took four hours to find the 15-year-olds guilty of killing Lily Lilley, before dumping her body in a wheelie bin and abandoning it in a canal.

The girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wept uncontrollably in court when the verdict was given.

'Unspeakably wicked'

After a brief adjournment for the defendants to compose themselves Mr Justice Sachs passing sentence said: "You have both been convicted of an act of unbelievable cruelty.

Detective Superintendent Roy Rainford: This crime was beyond belief

"Two young girls for totally pathetic reasons destroyed a frail old lady in order to get her house. What you did was unspeakably wicked.

"You have not shown the slightest trace of remorse or regret. You are both hard young women who have committed a terrible crime which almost defies belief by right-thinking people.

"Your only mitigation are your ages. You are both 15."

Dumped in canal

During the six week trial the jury of six men and six women heard that the girls befriended Mrs Lilley then murdered her at her home in West Street, Failsworth.

They wound a bandage around her face so tightly that she choked on her false teeth.

The girls then slashed the elderly woman's legs with a blunt knife, and forced her fragile eight-stone body into a wheelie-bin.

They pushed the bin through the streets and dumped it into the Rochdale canal.

The girls then made Mrs Lilley's house their own, using the telephone 258 times.

They wrote their names on the walls and carved them into the furniture.

The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday when the judge will consider lifting a ban on identifying the schoolgirls.

Great Manchester Police are still baffled about the motives for the murder.

Motive a mystery

Detective Superintendent Roy Rainford said the jury had delivered a "true and just verdict".

He added: "I find it inconceivable that any person, especially two young girls, could commit such a wicked crime.