Four of the teens told the truth. Four lied.

But because of "the golden thread that runs through our legal system" — the principle of reasonable doubt — the judge nevertheless found all eight not guilty of trashing the former Scott Park school and causing $1 million damage.

Justice John Takach was more than two hours into his oral judgment before he got to the "not guilty" point, and it seemed all but those final words were lost on the long row of restless youth who had been arrested inside the wrecked building in May 2011.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act prevents them from being identified

In the end, Takach said while he felt half the accused lied in their testimony, the Crown had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that they had caused the colossal damage inside the five-storey building. Since our justice system is predicated on the belief that "it is better for a guilty person to go free than for an innocent person to be found guilty," he had to find everyone not guilty.

The eight lawyers for the teens were crammed into the front of the courtroom while Takach said damage to Scott Park was so extensive he believed the vandalism had taken hours — maybe days — to afflict, yet the accused had not been inside the building long and its owner had not gone inside for eight days. None of the teens admitted to doing damage or seeing their co-accused cause damage.

Police at the scene failed to note if the youths they arrested were wet, cut, or had paint on them, Takach said.

Still, the eight shouldn't have even been inside the building, Takach said, placing some blame squarely on the shoulders of the parents in the courtroom, citing their lack of supervision.

The five boys and three girls were aged 14 to 16 when they were charged with breaking and entering with intent to commit an indictable offence, and breaking and entering while committing mischief.

Another boy arrested that night pleaded guilty to mischief under $5,000 while a girl pleaded to mischief over $5,000. Both testified against the other eight.