A man convicted of murdering a judge's daughter in 1952 left a Belfast court yesterday knowing he had been cleared - but without hearing the words "not guilty".
Three judges reserved their decision in the case of Iain Hay Gordon but acknowledged his appeal had been successful.
Mr Gordon (68), a Scottish bachelor, said he was disappointed the judges had not come straight out and told him he was not guilty of murdering Patricia Curran.
"But they have given me the result I wanted and I am grateful for that," he said outside the Court of Appeal.
Earlier his lawyer, Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC, had pleaded with the court president, Lord Chief Justice Sir Robert Carswell, to end Mr Gordon's agony. "He is a frail, old man now and he's been living with this stigma for nearly 50 years," he said.
Sir Robert said he and his fellow judges wished to consider their judgment. But he made it clear they intended to uphold the appeal.
An emotional Mr Gordon said: "I was disappointed I did not hear the words `not guilty'. But I got the result I wanted and the one I always knew I would get. I had to throw any kind of negative thoughts over my shoulder and concentrate on the positive aspect of getting my name cleared."
Paying tribute to his solicitor Margo Harvey and investigative journalist John Linklater, Mr Gordon said: "I could never have done this without them."
Iain Hay Gordon was a 20year-old airman stationed outside Belfast when Patricia Curran (19), a university student, was murdered on November 13th, 1952.
Mr Gordon, found guilty but insane, was released after seven years in a psychiatric hospital. He has fought to clear his name and maintained he confessed only after police threatened to tell his mother he was a homosexual.