Michael Beeby, 16, and Jason Harris, 17, were found not guilty of murder and not guilty of an alternative count of manslaughter following a six-week trial.

Michael Beeby was found guilty of violent disorder, a charge which all the other defendants had previously admitted.

Sentencing was adjourned to a date yet to be fixed, but Hand and Murphy were told they faced a life sentence. All were remanded in custody.

Mr Parvaiz's widow, Naheed Kausar, 33, who attended nearly every day of the trial, sat impassively as the verdicts were read out.

Following the trial she spoke of her grief. She said: "They haven't just killed him; they killed us as well. I feel so empty and lost. He was my life."

Mr Parvaiz, from Birkby, Huddersfield, was called to Field Head near Golcar on July 22 last year.

The court heard that in a "revenge" attack a gang of youths threw large stones at the taxi, smashing the windows, before dragging Mr Parvaiz out.

The court heard that weeks earlier, on June 11, Mr Parvaiz became inadvertently caught up in a dispute between rival Asian and white youths in the area.

A woman with an Asian boyfriend, whose flat door had been smashed the previous day, and who had overheard someone say "kill the Paki", hired Mr Parvaiz's taxi and drove to her address with some Asian friends.

The rival groups shouted abuse at each other and threw bottles, and Murphy's scooter was damaged.

Mr Parvaiz became frightened by the violence and tried to drive away up the road.

But the gang did not forget, and in the following weeks they hatched a plan to lure Mr Parvaiz to Field Head.

The court was told that on the night Mr Parvaiz was attacked, a girl used Murphy's mobile phone to call the mini-bus taxi.

A large group of youths, who had been drinking and smoking cannabis, gathered at Field Head waiting for the vehicle.

As Mr Parvaiz pulled up, stones and bricks were thrown at the vehicle, and Mr Parvaiz was dragged out screaming.

Forensic investigators found his blood pooled in the road and spattered against the side of the vehicle.

After the attack, witnesses described the group of boys as "excited" and "hyped up".

The group gathered at The Wheel pub, and witnesses heard Murphy bragging that his shoes were covered in blood.

He said: "I wonder if I've got Paki juice on the bottom of my shoes?"

Slavin and Harris come from respectable families.

Harris's father, a company director, put up a £100,000 surety for his bail, which was refused.

Slavin was the only one allowed out on bail throughout the proceedings.

Detective Superintendent Tim Forber, who lead the inquiry, said the youths had shown a "pack mentality" in an "utterly mindless" attack.

He went on: "The investigation showed quite clearly that the main motivation for this attack wasn't just racism.

"It was about retribution, payback for the earlier incident."

He stressed that Mr Parvaiz was an entirely innocent party to the initial incident involving the scooter and described his murder as an "absolutely horrific crime".

Asked whether Mr Parvaiz would have been killed if he was white, the officer said: "I have always maintained there was clear racial hostility on behalf of the defendants.

"Our case has always been that perhaps that racial hostility made it easier in their own minds to do what they did."

The defendants showed little emotion as the verdicts were delivered.

Murphy, of no fixed address; Beeby, of Sigott Street, Longwood; Utley, of Elmfield Avenue, Golcar; Harris, of Royals Head Lane, Longwood; and Slavin, of Howard Road, Lindley, sat in the dock in dark suits, some with their heads bowed.

Hand, of Spark Street, Longwood, was not in court today.

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