HAPPY couple Harry Hammond and Pamela Nixon have found love out of mutual heartbreak.

Both faced a bleak future after losing a loved one to child killers.

But the pair have triumphed over their family tragedies to find love with each other.

Mr Hammond, 55, and Mrs Nixon, 49, met in a self-help group on Tyneside for the families of murder victims.

Now, three months later, love has blossomed between the grandfather of murdered schoolboy Wesley Neailey, and the mother of 16-year-old arson attack victim Emma Cater.

Mrs Nixon said: "We have both suffered in a way that only relatives of child murder victims can understand.

"We have given each other support and love has grown for both of us. Our families are delighted."

The couple broke the news of their relationship on the day Emma's killer, Alan Ray, 26, from Scotswood, Newcastle, had his appeal against conviction rejected by the courts.

Babysitter Emma perished in a blaze in Newcastle, along with pregnant mother Lisa Dodgson, 25, and Miss Dodgson's daughters Amy, two, and Rosie, nine months.

Ray was sentenced to life imprisonment at Newcastle Crown Court for the 1998 attack.

Mrs Nixon said: "I feel the decision by the courts to turn down his appeal is a victory for justice, my daughter's memory, and the other innocent victims in that house who died at the hands of this monster."

A loophole allowed convicted paedophile Dominic McKilligan to strike in June 1998 after he was sent to live in the West End of Newcastle, near 11-year-old Wesley's home,

Mr Hammond said: "At last, from all the evil and trauma our families have suffered, some happiness has come our way.