He knew because his mate, Ms McBride's boyfriend Sayle Kenneth Newson, told him on the afternoon of September 30, 2014, that he had just picked her up in Muswellbrook and, in a jealous and ice-fuelled rage, bashed her to death.

And then, shortly after hearing that shocking news, Cunneen and Newson put their heads together and came up with a plan to dispose of Ms McBride's body, create a false alibi for Newson and point the finger at Ms McBride's ex-partner.

Cunneen, now 31, was on Thursday found guilty of being an accessory after the fact to Ms McBride's murder, a jury left with no doubt that he helped Newson dump Ms McBride's body in remote bushland outside Scone.

After the verdict, Cunneen, who had spent much of the last seven years behind bars after being convicted of firearm offences, was taken back into jail. He will be sentenced in September.

What the jury in Cunneen's trial did not know was that Newson had last year been found guilty of murdering Ms McBride.

In Cunneen's trial, Crown prosecutor Adrian Robertson had to first prove Newson murdered Ms McBride and then that Cunneen was involved in assisting Newson dump the body and cover it up. Newson, who was jailed for a maximum of 27 years, is appealing against his conviction, but the guilty verdict in Sydney on Thursday means there are now two juries who have been left with no doubt that he was the one who murdered Ms McBride.

The verdict was a huge relief for Ms McBride's family, her mother Lorraine Williams and father Steve McBride, and the detectives from Strike Force Karabi.

"There is a relief and a different level of peace that I can access now," Lorraine told the Newcastle Herald. "He is being held accountable for what he did to my beautiful girl. "He helped, he could have said something and the coward didn't."

"He helped and how dare he do that. He should have said something or done something."

Lorraine praised the work of the "A-team" - the Strike Force Karabi detectives and prosecutors who have now worked to convict Newson and Cunneen.

She singled out praise for Detective Inspector Ian Wright, saying: "If it wasn't for him being passionate, pursuing for Carly's truth then none of this would have happened".

"I am very pleased with the justice system," Lorraine said. "Carly has justice now."

Cunneen was initially charged with murder alongside Newson, but prosecutors dropped that charge in 2018 and instead said he had assisted Newson after Ms McBride's murder.

He now faces a maximum of 25 years in jail.

Ms McBride, a mother-of-two, was last seen leaving her ex-partner's house at Muswellbrook about 2pm on September 30, 2014.

Her skeletal remains were found in remote bushland at Owens Gap, on the outskirts of Scone, nearly two years later.

The prosecution case was that Ms McBride's boyfriend, Sayle Newson, intercepted Ms McBride after she left the house in Calgaroo Avenue and killed her by inflicting a number of blows to her head and back.

And Mr Robertson told the jury that shortly after Ms McBride was murdered, Cunneen became involved in what would become a plan to dispose of Ms McBride's body, create a false alibi for Newson and point the finger at Ms McBride's ex-partner.

Mr Robertson said as well as Cunneen telling police he and Newson were "together all afternoon" on the day Ms McBride was killed, there were other elements of assistance including supporting Newson's efforts to appear as the grieving partner and the deletion of mobile phone data.

And while Cunneen's assistance was "quite intense" in the days and weeks after Ms McBride's disappearance, the prosecution case was that it endured until the pair were both arrested in 2017.

"There was this dual aspect of Newson and [Cunneen] updating each other on the state of the police investigation," Mr Robertson said. "And Newson, we say, confirming over a long period that Cunneen was solid, that he was going to stand by his friend and not break ranks."

Cunneen never broke ranks, not when he was jailed for firearm offences or when he was charged with murder, and on Thursday, nearly seven years after Ms McBride's murder it all caught up with him.

He was handcuffed in the dock in the Downing Centre District Court, said goodbye to his parents and was led away to the cells.

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