"This proves if you are dogmatic enough and stick at it, you can achieve justice," Steve Potter said minutes after a Dunedin District Court jury found long-serving Alexandra policeman Neil Ford guilty of perjury and lying about Mr Cribb being at fault when his vehicle hit Ford's in 2005.
Mr Potter, wife Denise and their daughters, Koren and Sharelle, were in the courtroom and exchanged smiles when the 11-person jury unanimously found Ford guilty of deliberately giving false evidence and deceiving the court during the hearing in February 2006, at which Mr Cribb was convicted of careless driving causing injury.
Ford, who showed little emotion when the verdict was given, was remanded on bail for sentencing on September 28.
After Mr Cribb was convicted, they wrote countless letters to the then Police Complaints Authority and senior police officers saying an injustice had been done, and asking for the case to be reopened.
Mr Cribb was eventually granted a retrial in June 2008, but police offered no evidence and the charge against him was dismissed. He was later awarded costs.
Mr Potter said last night he always thought Mr Cribb was the victim and had not been supported enough by the police or the justice system.
"It is good to see justice finally being done ... To see a young man so low hurt us the most. He went through some... torrid times."
He rang Mr Cribb immediately after the verdict and said Mr Cribb was "over the moon".
"This is the closing of a chapter for him."
Mr Potter, whose eyes welled with tears as he spoke to media last night, said Mr Cribb could now get on with his life and become the "great man" the Potters always knew he could be.
"However, Mr Potter said the verdict was a "hollow victory" in some ways.
"You have to feel sorry for the officer, but he has caused so much hurt and sorrow by his actions."
It was a shame Ford had "lived a lie for so long", Mr Potter said.
Contacted in Hamilton last night, where he has lived for the past five months, Mr Cribb (22) said he was "overwhelmed" by the verdict and would be celebrating with his family.
"It's so good it's all over."
After a restless day waiting for the outcome, Mr Cribb knew he would "be able to sleep tonight".
He was unable to be in Dunedin for the trial but thanked the Potter family, the Alexandra community, and all the witnesses who had come forward to help him since the first hearing.
A second police officer has also been convicted of misleading the court over the 2006 hearing.
After the verdict was given last night, Judge Kellar lifted suppression orders relating to a hearing in Dunedin last week.
At that hearing, Alexandra police officer Dairne Olwen Cassidy, who investigated the 2005 crash, pleaded guilty to a charge of wilfully attempting to pervert the court of justice. She will be sentenced in Alexandra in November.
In a statement last night, Southern District operations manager Inspector Lane Todd said he was "disappointed" the two officers were found guilty of perjury-related charges.
"Such behaviour would not be acceptable in any organisation, but the police's position of trust, authority and responsibility in society makes it even more significant when an officer makes a decision to act outside the law," he said.
An internal code of conduct investigation would be held and both officers remained suspended on full pay until the investigation was completed.
In his half-hour summing up, Judge Kellar told the jurors that to find Ford guilty, they had to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that when he made the false assertions at the defended hearing, he knew they were false and that he lied with the intention of misleading the court.
