TWO families continue to face "absolute hell" and "mental torture" as the search continues to find the bodies of their loved ones at Didcot Power Station.

Police formally identified the remains of father-of-one Chris Huxtable on Saturday morning, more than six months after the partial collapse of the boiler house. But despite the best efforts of recovery teams, two other men, Ken Cresswell, 57, and John Shaw, 61, are still missing under 20,000 tonnes of rubble.

The three men and colleague Mick Collings, from Cleveland, were working for contractors Coleman Demolition. They were buried in the wreckage of the boiler room when it collapsed while being prepared for demolition. Mr Collings' body was recovered shortly after the collapse in February.

Richard Webber, who represents Drayton on Oxfordshire County Council, said the recovery of Mr Huxtable would be an "enormous relief" to the family.

He added: "It has been an ongoing tragedy for everyone in the area. I feel desperately sorry for the family but hope this might give them some much-needed peace."

Following weeks of round-the-clock recovery efforts Mr Huxtable's body left the site in a guard of honour procession on the Wednesday night.

On hearing of the formal identification, Thomas Williams, believed to be his nephew, said on Facebook: "After all the long and tragic months of waiting you can finally get laid to rest, love you and miss you uncle Chris forever in our hearts R.I.P."

Didcot East county councillor Patrick Greene said: "It will hopefully give them closure. To find words to describe what these families have gone through is very difficult."

Mr Cresswell's son-in-law Steve Hall said discovering the body was not that of their relative had been "hard". But he added: "We are still hoping that tomorrow is the day we are going to get Ken back. We have to have that hope, as we have done every day since February."

Steve Connel, the mayor of Didcot, offered his sympathies to both Mr Huxtable's family and those of the other two men.

He said: "I think, for Chris's family, it's a huge thing. It means they are finally able to properly begin the grieving process and move forward.

"However, my heart goes out to to Ken and John's family. I can't imagine what they went through when they were told it wasn't their loved one that had been found."

Both of the two missing men are from Rotherham, South Yorkshire. On Sunday their local MP Sarah Champion said their families' has been unable to move forward since February's disaster.

She said: Their lives have been on hold all this time; waiting for information, worrying if they leave home in case they miss a call and having to constantly fight to keep the search on track. I would not wish what they have had to endure on my worst enemies.

"I can't imagine what it must have been like to receive the phone call saying a body of a man had been found at Didcot. The three families drove down and then had an agonising wait while the man was identified. For the Shaw and Cresswell families to then have to drive home without their loved one must have been absolute hell.

"RWE (NPower) needs to focus all it's resources on finding the missing two men to end the mental torture the Shaw and Cresswell families are living through."

Work to recover the men started in March and was then put on hold after workers reached a 50-metre exclusion zone around the dangerous remaining half of the site.

In July the remaining half was brought down in a controlled explosion and work resumed the next day.

A joint Thames Valley Police and Health Safety Executive (HSE) investigation is ongoing to establish the circumstances of the workers' deaths.

On Saturday, owners RWE said in a statement: "Our thoughts are with Chris’ family and friends at this deeply distressing time. We continue to think of the families of Ken Cresswell and John Shaw, who are still missing at this time, and of all those close to Mike Collings who also lost his life in this terrible tragedy."

Efforts to find the remaining two men are taking place 12 hours a day, seven days a week at the site while the families of the 'Didcot Three' continue to console each other.

A post on from Saturday, August 27 on a Facebook page entitled 'RIP Chris Huxtable', which appears to have been set up by a cousin, said: "Chris you'll always be remembered as our loving, strong, hard working angel, sleep tight handsome until we meet again."