THREE men who sent hoax e-mails about a business trip to a rival - who later suffered a mental breakdown and killed his daughter - were yesterday cleared of forgery.

Philip Andrew Hall, (pictured) from Whitelye, near Tintern, plunged a 14-inch carving knife into 12-year-old daughter Emma's heart within 12 hours of returning from the trip to India in July 2000.

Following the tragedy, Mr Hall's family released a statement claiming the e-mails had acted as a "catalyst" for Emma's death.

During the six-day trial at Cardiff crown court an order banned any reporting of the events following Mr Hall's return. That was lifted after the verdict yesterday - but Judge Christopher Llew-ellyn Jones, QC, stressed Emma's death had "no relevance" to the case.

Jeremy Paul Aston, 44, Raymond Latham Ball, 40, both from Cardiff, and Ivan Lucas, 30, of Old Dixton Road, Monmouth, all employees of AB Biomonitoring, admitted sending fake e-mails to Mr Hall between May and July 2000 about the trip to India.

The e-mails purported to be from a fictitious business contact named Dr Sunil Hankawanka but the trio maintained the e-mails were a joke and they were "shocked" when they heard Mr Hall had made the trip.

All three were cleared of forgery after a jury returned unanimous not guilty verdicts. Mr Hall, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, was a marketing manager for Cardiff firm Molecular Light Technology (MLT).

It later emerged he had planned to kill his whole family - believing they would be resurrected and live in paradise.

Aston and Ball formed AB Biomonitoring in late 1998, and initially shared the same premises and facilities as MLT in Llanishen.

The two companies worked closely in industrial chemical testing but in 1999 ABB moved to the Cardiff Medicentre.

Shortly after, Aston and Ball became suspicious their post and e-mails - still being sent to Llanishen premises - were being intercepted and used for business purposes by MLT. The hoax e-mail addressed to themselves but delivered to their old address aimed to test their theory.

When MLT replied to the e-mail instead of forwarding it to them, they decided to continue the hoax and over the next two months sent a series of messages to Andrew Hall which ended when he made the pointless trip to India. Mr Hall was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in December 2000. He remains in hospital.

Following the verdict, a Gwent police spokesman said: "A thorough investigation was carried out, and all evidence presented to the jury for consideration."