A man has been convicted at Dungannon Crown Court of murdering retired librarian Attracta Harron in December 2003.
23-year-old Trevor Hamilton, a farm labourer from Concess Road in Sion Mills, Co Tyrone, denied murdering Mrs Harron, who was 65 and a mother of five. He now faces life imprisonment.
Hamilton committed the crime less than four months after completing a jail term for rape. Details of his previous crimes were given to the jury, the first time previous convictions were disclosed during a trial in the Northern Ireland.
The trial had gone into its seventh week and involved more than 200 witnesses. The judge, Mr Justice McLaughlin, sent home the jury of six women and six men yesterday after they spent over three hours considering the case.
They returned to the court this morning and returned a guilty verdict early this afternoon.
Hamilton showed no emotion as the verdict was announced.
Mrs Harron vanished while walking back across the border from Co Donegal to her home in Strabane in December 2003. She had attended morning Mass at a chapel in Lifford.
Four months after she went missing, her body was found near the home of the accused.
