A regional daily has vowed to keep backing a “quest for justice” by the families of terror attack victims after a jury ruled their loved ones were unlawfully killed.

The Birmingham Mail successfully campaigned for the inquest to be reopened into the deaths of 21 people who died in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, after the newspaper’s content editor Andy Richards discovered in 2014 that the hearings had never been completed.

Andy had worked with the families to prepare for a succession of legal challenges to counter the reluctance of the authorities to resume the inquest.

And, although the coroner had ruled that the identity of the bombers was not an issue that could be decided by the inquest, names were finally revealed in court.

Taking cues from Reach plc sister newspaper the Liverpool Echo’s coverage of the Hillsborough inquests, the Mail was the only media organisation in court almost every day of the six-week hearing.

The Mail’s sister website Birmingham Live broke the news of the verdict as it happened on Friday, while the paper’s splash on Saturday revealed police had pledged to continue the investigation.

The Mail also reporting the background of the bombers named during the proceedings, the reaction of the families and an interview with the Chief Constable, over seven pages.

Mail print editor Paul Cole told HTFP: “And it won’t end here. There are still questions the families want answered, and the Mail – which altered its masthead to include ‘Proudly supporting the Birmingham pub bombings families’ for the duration of the inquest – will continue to support them in their quest for justice.”