As the parents of murderer Elliot Turner are sentenced in England, across the world Emily Longley's father will await a text message bringing him their fate.

Leigh Turner, 54, and Anita Turner, 51, face jail terms after being found guilty of helping cover up the killing by destroying a confession letter from their son and taking away vital evidence. They will be sentenced tonight, New Zealand time.

The beep of the mobile will turn another page in a horror story Whakatane newspaper editor Mark Longley fears will never end.

"It's the on-going saga of the victim's family, there is no respite,'' he said.

Turner, 20, was in May jailed for at least 16 years for killing Emily, 17, at his parents' Bournemouth home in May 2011.

While the guilty verdict allowed the Longley family to grieve, their "detox" from Turner ended last week, when news came he planned to appeal.

"The appeal was more upsetting (than tonight will be),'' Longley said.

"I knew he was going to do it. From our point of view it was nice to have a month not thinking about them but now they are sadly back in our thoughts.

"We should get used to it as in 16 years we will go through the parole hearings and then he will be released at some point. The appeal meant having to think about him, and having to talk about him.''

After sitting through every day of the trial, parents Mark and Caroline, and sister Hannah opted not to return to Winchester Crown Court for the sentencing of Turner's parents.

Emily's grandparents will be in court, and will text the sentence to New Zealand.

Emily attended secondary school in Auckland before moving to Britain, where she was born, and had been staying with her grandparents, who had taken her death very hard.

"I feel really sorry for my mother, she's really struggling with it. Turner was in her house - it's taken a toll on my parents,'' Longley said.  

After the trial, the Longleys said one of the hardest things to deal was the Turner family's lack of remorse.

"We are shocked and appalled and disgusted at the whole family and in particular at (the) mother.

"She would just stare at us, as if it was our fault she was there. That to me, even from one parent to another parent who has lost a child, you would have remorse, but her - it was just venom. It didn't wash with me,'' Longley said at the time.

"And to know Emily died alone in that house, and to have her body alone there while this family tried to concoct some story about how she died, it's just too hard to think about.''

- © Fairfax NZ News