MICHAEL BALDWIN was found guilty today of murdering his stepdaughter Jenna Brookfield.

The jury of eight men and four women in the Cardiff crown court trial returned a unanimous verdict based on the prosecution case.

After hearing six weeks of evidence, the jury did not believe Baldwin's "fabric of lies" about how the pretty teenager supposedly died.

Judge John Griffith Williams QC thanked the jurors for their "obvious care and attention" in the case.

He told them: "There may have been times when you found it very worrying and troubling indeed."

Baldwin, 36, formerly of Limekiln Road, Pontnewynydd, had denied the charge of murder.

He claimed Jenna accidentally fell down the stairs after they had a heated argument.

He said she had been "winding him up" and poking him in the back of the neck on the stairs.

Baldwin said the incident happened at their former home of Jasmine Cottage, Ffrwd Road, Abersychan, on September 10, 2002.

But, the proescution said, by this time schoolgirl Jenna was already dead. Baldwin murdered had her at home five days earlier, on September 5, the proescution told the court.

The proescution said the "callous" and "ruthless" stepfather then hid her body in a secret location until he decided how to dispose of her.

The last time Jenna was seen alive was at around 1.30pm on that day.

She had not gone to school that day but spoke to a number of her girl friends at the side entrance to Abersychan Comprehensive.

Shortly afterwards, she went home and was never seen alive again.

Twelve weeks later, in the early hours of November 19, police made the grim discovery of Jenna's remains in a shallow grave on the Blorenge mountain.

Her devastated mum, Desiree, was asked to identify her daughter's body by a gold ring pulled from the middle finger of Jenna's right hand.

Baldwin used a new shovel, bought the day after he killed her, to dig her grave, the proescution said.

In the weeks that followed Jenna's disappearance, Baldwin bombarded Jenna's family with sick silent and anonymous phone calls and text messages - pretending to be Jenna.

Desiree, Jenna's natural dad, Nigel, and even her half-brother, Josh, ten, were on the receiving end of Baldwin's merciless plan.

He tried to convince them and the police Jenna was still alive in order to divert attention away from him.

Baldwin had always denied murder but admitted to burying Jenna in a fit of "panic".

He only confessed to making all the silent and anonymous calls and sending text messages at the start of the trial.

* For a full report, buy tomorrow's Argus.