The family of Sussex backpacker Shirine Harburn praised Chinese justice today after the two men who knifed her to death were found guilty of murder.

Shirine, 30, had been trekking through remote mountains in China when she was attacked, stabbed 12 times, robbed of £250 and left to die in May 2000.

Members of her family and her boyfriend Colin Horsfield were today flying home from the court in the Kangding province after the verdict was announced.

They had been accompanied on the trip by Detective Superintendent Chris Gillings, of Sussex Police, who aided Chinese authorities in the hunt for the killers.

The two murderers must wait for the verdict to be verified at a higher court, common procedure in China, before sentence is passed.

A police spokesman said the pair were likely to face the death penalty.

Shirine, from Langley Green, Crawley, was stabbed as she walked alone on the Paomao Mountain in the province, which is off the backpacker trail but popular with Chinese tourists.

Her boyfriend Colin had stopped further down the mountain to take photographs of the breathtaking scenery.

Unable to find her, he raised the alarm.

Her body was discovered two days later by a tourist 3,000ft up the slopes. She had been stabbed 12 times with a small craft knife.

Colin, who lives in Crawley, spoke to The Argus earlier this year of his horror at the discovery.

He said: "The last three years have been hell. My girlfriend had been murdered but it was not just one event, that one day, I had to come to terms with.

"Every day when I woke up it was like she had been murdered all over again."

Lianne, Shirine's other sister Kiera, 29, and her parents and Colin devoted themselves to solving the mystery of her death.

Colin said: "The hardest thing were the unanswered questions running through our minds, the what-ifs and the regrets.

"The Chinese authorities were great and answered everything but we just wanted to know what had happened."

Speaking at an inquest into Shirine's death last year, at which a verdict of unlawful killing was recorded, Shirine's father said a conviction would not ease the pain of their loss.

He said: "Nothing will take away the pain we feel and nothing will fill the void in our hearts.

"We miss her terribly and are deeply distressed her life was cut so short."