The Leicester Mercury's news of the Soham 'guilty' verdicts broke in time for the paper's City edition, on the streets an hour after the jury announced its decision.

The Final edition, brought forward by an hour, was strengthened with news on a big local murder trial - and the paper had to find room for them both.

Four people involved in the brutal beating and killing of Loughborough teenager Adam Morrell were being sentenced and the news came through in time for more coverage.

Deputy editor Kay Drummond said: "This allowed us to create a striking front page boost announcing the Loughborough sentencing, cross-referencing to the full story inside.

"We had an exceptionally strong bill show across Leicester for the Soham story and our colleagues in newspaper sales were also able to rush out 1,500 copies of our Final edition to Loughborough, as well as local news bills.

"We brought forward our Final edition by an hour and ran Pages one, two and three on the Soham verdicts and backgrounders, including David Blunkett's announcement that an independent inquiry was to be held into how Huntley got the job as school caretaker."

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail pastill@nep.co.uk