Emily's dad hopes for remorse

Emily Longley. Photo / Facebook.

The father of Emily Longley says that he hopes the Turner family will finally show some contrition now that they are behind bars.

Speaking after Leigh, 54, and Anita Turner, 51, were sentenced to 27 months in prison, Mark Longley said: "The whole family would have spent last night in prison and I'm hoping at some point it would have dawned on them what they have done."

Mark heard of the sentence at about 10pm last night on Twitter, and this was later confirmed with a phone call from police in the United Kingdom.

He said the police always had a strong case against the parents, who destroyed a note written by 20-year-old Elliott Turner confessing to the former Auckland student's murder.

Even without the use of covert recording in the Turners' home, Longley, from Whakatane, was confident of a conviction.

He said by waiting an hour to report Emily's death, they had increased the pain caused to Mark and Caroline over their daughter's death.

"Emily's body was lying there for an hour while they concocted lies about what had happened. It was very undignified for her. It's still very upsetting to see pictures of Emily's body, knowing what happened.

"There has been a lot to digest, it's taken a bit of time to fully accept what they did to Emily.

"The shock of the trial has worn off. I guess we have gone through that stage in the grieving process."

Longley said that he didn't not think that Elliott Turner's application to appeal his conviction would be successful, but if it was he would return to the UK to fight it.