A NEPHEW of Robert Kennedy, the assassinated United States senator, was yesterday convicted of a murder he committed 27 years ago when he was 15 years old.

Michael Skakel, 41, was found guilty of bludgeoning Martha Moxley to death in an exclusive neighbourhood of Belle Haven in Greenwich, Connecticut, in October 1975.

The 15-year-old's body was found under a tree on the lawn of her parents' house.

Skakel, the son of Rushton Skakel, the brother of Kennedy's widow, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, yesterday stood frozen to the spot when the guilty verdict was read out in Norwalk, Connecticut, after the jury had deliberated for three days.

Members of the Skakel and the murdered girl's families sighed heavily, leading the judge to immediately order silence in the courtroom.

Skakel now faces spending the rest of his life in prison when sentenced. He will appeal.

The crime opened a window on to the world of privilege enjoyed by the Kennedy dynasty and raised suspicions that Skakel's family ties had protected him for years.

He beat Martha with a six-iron golf club and also stabbed her in the neck with a piece of the shattered shaft of the club, which was later traced to a set owned by his mother.

The court was told Skakel had a crush on Martha and got upset because his attractive blonde neighbour seemed more interested in Thomas, his older brother, an early suspect in the case.

There was no witness or forensic evidence, such as DNA, to link Skakel to the murder, but several people testified that they had heard Skakel confess over the years.

Gregory Coleman, a key prosecution witness in the murder case, who died last year of an apparent drugs overdose, was among those.

He once told a grand jury that Skakel told him: ''I'm gonna get away with murder. I'm a Kennedy.''

Coleman later admitted in court that he was under the influence of heroin when he gave the testimony.

After the verdict, Martha's mother, Dorthy, and her brother, John, wept and hugged Jonathan Benedict, the prosecutor. Mrs Moxley said: ''Isn't it wonderful?'' However, John Moxley said: ''It's bittersweet. It's a hollow victory.''

Skakel's lawyer said nothing when asked by John Kavanewsky, the judge, if he wanted to speak.

A request by Skakel to speak was firmly denied by the judge, who set the sentencing date for July 19. Skakel was then handcuffed and led away.

In the absence of hard evidence, no-one was ever charged with the crime and detectives eventually closed the investigation.

The case remained unsolved for more than two decades, raising speculation that wealth and the Kennedy connection had protected the Skakel family.

However, it was reopened after several books accused local detectives of bungling the original investigation, not least by failing to search the Skakel home.

It was not until January 2000 - 25 years after the murder - that Skakel was arrested after a grand jury found that he had made several inconsistent statements to investigators.

By then Skakel had been transformed from the lanky athlete of his youth into an overweight, divorced father fighting alcoholism.

The case followed a twisted legal path to the courtroom with Skakel unsuccessfully fighting to be tried as a juvenile, which could have seen him escaping punishment, as Connecticut has no juvenile facility in which to imprison a middle-aged man.

Among the witnesses were several former classmates of Skakel's from the Elan School, and some from a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in Maine.

The defence argued that the Elan students were berated and beaten until they told administrators what they wanted to hear, an atmosphere that contributed to Skakel's purported confession.

Skakel was the third suspect to be named by police since the murder.

His conviction is the latest in a long line of controversies and tragedies to affect the Kennedy clan - the foremost liberal family in the US political establishment.

John F Kennedy, the US president, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. His brother, Robert Kennedy - Skakel's uncle - was shot dead five years later while campaigning in Los Angeles for the Democratic presidential nomination.

A brother and a sister of the two men died in plane crashes in 1944 and 1948. A second sister was forced into a mental home by Joseph Kennedy, the family's overbearing father.

Edward Kennedy, the US senator and the late president's remaining brother, ruined his chances of running for the presidency after being involved in a car accident in which he left his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, to die.

The late Robert Kennedy's son, Joe, was also in a car accident which left a passenger paralysed.

Further tragedy hit the Kennedy's in the late 1990s, when Michael Kennedy, a nephew of the late president, was killed in a skiing accident. His brother had died of a drugs overdose in 1984.

In July 1999, John F Kennedy Junior, his wife, and her sister, died when the plane JFK was flying crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Investigators later blamed the crash on pilot error.

As well as tragedy, the family has been beset by scandal. A nephew of Edward Kennedy was accused of rape and then acquitted. Other Kennedys have had drug problems.

The private life of the late president was the subject of allegations about his compulsive womanising and ruthless political methods.

Despite the controversy, the Kennedy name retains a mythical status in the US.