Four innocent lesbians, wrongly jailed for up to 40 years for gang raping two little girls, have declared no amount of compensation will make up for their lives being wrecked.

They are set to receive a multi-million dollar payout, but are adamant the about turn by the courts in declaring them innocent is the prize they had always set their hearts on.

The four were finally exonerated last week in a surprise announcement from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after a 22-year battle by their legal teams.

The women had remained in jail repeatedly refusing offers of early parole if they accepted their crimes and further agreeing to embark on rehabilitation programs for child sex abusers.

They told DailyMail.com that they had been victims of a 'hysterical witch hunt, false evidence and anti-gay sentiment' from the judicial system that existed in the 1990s.

One said: 'Our nightmare is finally over…but so is much of our lives.'

Elizabeth Ramirez, Kristie Mayhugh, Anna Vasquez and Cassandra Rivera had floundered in dingy prison cells since the '90s on the word of two children, one of who later retracted her evidence and stated they had not been abused.

Texas Court of Criminal appeals ruled last week that the so-called San Antonio 4 were innocent after a 22-year battle by their legal teams. Cassandra Rivera (left) and Anna Vasquez (right) have spoken out about the experience

Cassandra Rivera, center, followed by Elizabeth Ramirez and Kristie Mayhugh were freed in 2013 after a judge agreed that their convictions were tainted by faulty witness testimony

Elizabeth Ramirez, center, is greeted by family after she was released from the Bexar County Jail in November 2013

Cassandra Rivera, now 41, told DailyMail.com in an exclsuive interviewthat her biggest regret, however, was missing out on seeing her two children grow up and simply 'tucking them in every night'.

She said: 'I believe (the case) was a lot to do with the fact that there was a lot of discrimination towards gays in the 1990s.

The women's nightmare began in the summer of 1994 when the two girls, aged seven and nine went to stay at the home of their aunt Elizabeth Ramirez, while their mother was away in Colorado.

Ramirez's former girlfriend, Kristie Mayhugh, lived with her and another couple -Vasquez and Rivera - would visit the apartment frequently.

But after the girls had returned home, their grandmother was said to have noticed a transformation in the girls' behavior.

It was claimed that the girls played with their dolls in 'a sexual manner' and one of the children claimed she had been sexually assaulted by the four women in her aunt's apartment.

The girls said the women held them down and inserted various objects into them, while threatening them with a gun or knife.

The stories changed several times and one doctor who examined them questioned if the crimes may have been 'satanic.'

This is the text message sent to all four women last week telling them they were at last innocent and the response from Cassandra Rivera

Another expert Dr Nancy Kellogg examined the children and said the elder of the girls showed 'physical, objective signs of sexual abuse'.

All four were arrested and in 1997 with Ramirez, considered the ringleader, sentenced to nearly 40 years in prison.

In 1998, the other women each given 15-year sentences, despite all four fighting the charges and there being no adult corroboration of the allegations.

Four years ago, one of the victims announced she was coerced into making a false accusation and the courts began ordering their release with Vasquez let out in 2012 and the others given their freedom in 2013.

The woman who accused the four, now in her twenties and a mother herself, retracted her statement and denied she had been sexually assaulted.

But despite their freedom, the four were still regarded by the state as sex offenders who had exploited children until last Wednesday's sudden declaration of their innocence.

News of the ending of their long battle ending was given in a text message from their lawyer Michael Ware which read: 'We won!'

Rivera texted back: 'Oh my God. I can't believe it. Thank you so much…I can't stop crying.'

Ramirez was given a near 40-year sentence and the others got 15 years each.

Rivera, now 41, told DailyMail.com that her biggest regret, however, was missing out on seeing her two children grow up and simply 'tucking them in every night'.

She said: 'I believe (the case) was a lot to do with the fact that there was a lot of discrimination towards gays in the 1990s.

Elizabeth Ramirez, Kristie Mayhugh, Cassandra Rivera and Anna Vasquez were wrongly convicted in 1998 of sexually assaulting two of Ramirez's nieces, ages seven and nine

Their case for exoneration was led by attorney Michael Ware (pictured center) who works for the non-profit group, Innocence Project of Texas

'The fact that we are lesbians and it was a sex crime and when Salem witch trials were really big.

'They made up this huge story about us and media were heavily involved and people believed we had committed the crime

'All everybody heard was what was being said about us and what was being said against us. We never stood a chance.

'It is the worst feeling ever when you now you haven't done anything and they are constantly saying you did and are a child molester.'

She added: 'It was outrageously untrue. The four of us would never have done anything like that.

'It was hard for us, for our families and people who loved us because they knew we would never do something so awful and horrendous.'

She had been married as a teenager, but before her divorce and coming out as gay, she had two children Michael and Ashley, who were seven and eight years old when she was jailed.

She said: 'Being charged was really, really hard…I had two small children and we were just young adults trying to live our lives.

'We all had futures and it was just taken away from us. It was very painful.

'We were on shock. It was a major shock. We believed that the judicial system does what it is supposed to and that if you tell the truth you are not going to be taken to prison.

'You believe they are going to find out the truth, you go to trial, it all comes out and everything is going to be OK because we told the truth.

Vasquez, pictured after the exoneration hearing, said she learned she was 'a stronger woman than I have ever known' when she was in prison

'We co-operated but that did not happen and we ended up being taken away from everybody we loved in our lives. It was just a nightmare. I was incarcerated for 14 years.'

She and the others said they felt 'like a number lost in the system' and what kept them going was the belief that the truth would be revealed and they would be freed.

Rivera said: 'It was very hard. My children were only seven and eight at the time. I had a really, really hard time.

'My mom had to raise them and all I could think about was that I didn't want my children to forget me or know me as a child molester.

'I wanted them to know that I loved them every day and tell them that. I was not able to tuck them in and take care of them.

'It was very hard to deal with and there were times when you wanted to go crazy. I had to keep myself together. I had to be strong and my mom would come visit me and she would tell me to remember that they were there for me.'

The four friends were separated in prison at Mountain View Jail in Gatesville, Texas, which also houses the state's female death row inmates and has the capacity to lock up 645 inmates.

Rivera, prisoner number 935477, was in segregation for the first year of her internment.

'It was my darkest moment. I was isolated and that caused so much pain. I read the Bible a lot and probably two or three times from front to back because I needed to get through it,' she said.

After more than ten years behind bars, the authorities offered her and the other three women, the chance for partial freedom.

Rivera said: 'When we came up for parole we were meant to take an 18-month course which meant we would have to admit we were guilty just to go home.

'That was something we were just not going to do because we knew we had not committed a crime.

Elizabeth Ramirez, right, then 38, and Cassandra Rivera, then 37, in the Hobby Unit in Marlin, Texas, in September 2012

Rivera (pictured while incarcerated) said it was hard to leave her children, who were seven and eight, when she entered prison

'We were not going to participate, so our punishment was segregation for refusing it and on the unit I was at, it was so dark and dreary, so sad.

'You are not allowed to speak to anybody. There was no communication with anybody except for the guards when they would come to leave you a tray or to check on you to see if you were still alive.

'We took that punishment because there was no way we were going to participate in any kind of rehabilitation because we knew we had done nothing.'

She said during prison visits from her children her despair deepened as she was always behind a glass screen.

'It was very painful because I could not kiss them or hug them. As they got older they understood and believed in me and knew that I had not committed a crime,' she said.

Dr Kellogg later retracted her testimony and the womens' appeal was told she 'now agrees with the defense that there are no definitive signs of sexual abuse'.

The appeal was told that she 'has acknowledged that her testimony at trial was wrong.'

'It was really really hard, but we kept strong and made it through,' Rivera said.

Texas passed a compensation statute in 2009, which allows for wrongly convicted people to be awarded $80,000 per year for each 12 months spent in jail.

The four womens' total compensation package could reach up to $5 million from state funds when lawyers have finalized the claim.

Rivera added: 'I don't think any amount of money will make up for the fact that I was taken away from my children and family for so many years.

'I would never have left my kids and there is no way that $80,000 dollars per year is going to make me feel better.

In this April 22, 2015 file photo, Vasquez, Ramirez, Mayhugh and Rivera look on during a hearing in San Antonio, Texas

'I wasn't able to raise them and do things for them and be there at every event they had while they were growing up.

'I wasn't able to play a part in their lives and I don't think any amount of money will ever make me feel better about that.'

Vasquez said: 'The worst thing was losing my family and loved ones, having to conform to a completely different world that I once was naive to, and especially the loss of my freedom.

'The best part of my incarceration was that I learned that I am a stronger woman than I have ever known.. One of strength, perseverance, determination, and survival.

'But I was living under this dark cloud for 22 long years. Living with this scarlet letter that most everyone in prison despises. It is really the worst crime to have in prison. My conviction alone was like a death sentence in there.

'But unfortunately there are many more out there and even some that we don't even know about.

'The feeling (of being declared innocent) is amazing. I have been vindicated. I have fought for my life since 1994 and here it is November 2016 and I have won what was rightfully mine all along, my freedom.'

Their case for exoneration was led by attorney Michael Ware who works for the non-profit group, Innocence Project of Texas.

He said: 'I think there was a really a lack of critical thinking initially on the part of the investigating detective, on the part of the pediatrician who did the sexual assault examinations and on the part of the prosecutors who took the case and ran with it.

'And on the part of the judiciary who presided over the trials. If only somebody had sat down and said "Wait a minute…why are we going with this narrative without a healthy dose of skepticism?"

'I suppose the authorities wanted to believe it and that is why they helped it along or went with it.

'I think they also went with it because the four young women were openly gay and it enabled them to help the narrative along.

Rivera (left and right), who has had the word 'innocent' tattooed on her arm this week, revealed she has managed to get her life back on track since her release and found a job in sales. Vasquez (right with Rivera) says she fells as though she's won her freedom with the exoneration

' I think there was very likely a feeling that these women are the 'other'.

'So what otherwise would be preposterous allegations, made them more plausible because "they are the other…we don't know what they are up to".'

He added: 'There is a bit of the Salem Witch trial phenomenon there.

'And this case was assigned to a homicide detective who handled it like he would a homicide case.

'He basically typed out a written statement for a seven-year-old to swear to and sign. The seven year-old at the time couldn't even read.

'That's what you do in a homicide case, you pressure witnesses and you almost always really start with the premise that a crime did occur. I mean, there's a dead body, and somebody caused this person to be dead.

'This is a case where the crime was completely imaginary.

The criminal justice system is always looking for a vulnerable population to pick on whether it is the African American population, poor population or whatever it may be.

Ware said: 'The criminal justice system is always looking for a marginalized group in society to pick on. They make easy targets.

A film about the women called South West of Salem has been made, and a new ending is being prepared to mark the innocent verdicts

'People are not going to rush to stand up for them and they do not have the connections within the system. The system can pick on them without having its own work scrutinized and held accountable.

'I think in this particular case the fact that these four women were openly gay put them within a marginalized group that the system could go after with impunity.'

The two girls were identified in court as nieces of Ramirez, but their father, Javier Limon, was said to have made advances toward her that she had rebuffed.

It was claimed Limon had a relationship with Ramirez's older sister but had tried to embark on an interlude with her and in retaliation 'coached' his daughters to accuse her of molestation. They also ended up accusing the three other women.

Limon has vigorously denied the claims that he propositioned Ramirez and stated that his daughters made their allegations entirely voluntarily.

He said he had to take the matter to the police as a responsible father.

Ware added: 'Their lives are forever changed from this. They were identified as child molesters and had that identity thrust upon them. This is a start for them to getting their lives back.

'When you are accused of something as horrible as this, it is important for the world to know that not only did you not get a fair trial but that you are actually innocent.'

A film about the women called South West of Salem has been made, and a new ending is being prepared to mark the innocent verdicts.

Director Deborah Esquenazi said: 'It was clear they were living some sort of dystopian nightmare. I visited them in prison and they were in a dark web.

'But they have suffered for 23 years both inside and outside prison. There was this false notion that gay people are more pre-disposed to harming children.'

Rivera, who has had the word 'innocent' tattooed on her arm this week, revealed she has managed to get her life back on track since her release and found a job in sales. She is also getting married.

She has found new love and is to marry her girlfriend Tiffany on New Year's Eve.