CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The family of a murdered 10-year-old Cambridge boy will probably never see a single dollar out of the millions they were awarded Wednesday by a jury against the two convicted assailants.

But their attorney said that Jeffrey Curley’s family was not looking for money. The lawsuit was an effort to deter future crimes like the one that claimed their son three years ago, he said.

“I’m not getting any money; they’re not getting any money,” said Lawrence Frisoli, the family attorney. “What we’re saying is this is a barometer. If you rape kids, you can be held civilly liable.”

Curley’s relatives were not with their attorney after the verdict. Frisoli said they were too upset to return after testifying Tuesday. But he said they were pleased with the decision.

“They’re very grateful and very thankful,” Frisoli said.

The jury held Salvatore Sicari and Charles Jaynes – who are both in prison on murder convictions – each liable for $100 million in punitive damages. They also were liable for $20 million each for the pain and suffering they caused the boy, as well as various amounts of compensation to members of his family.

The $328 million verdict dwarfs by far the largest jury verdict in 1999, according to the Web site for the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. That year, a $28 million award was issued to the family of man struck by a car as he fled a bar brawl. At the time, the legal newspaper said it was one of the largest verdicts in the state’s history.

Jaynes released a statement through his court-appointed attorney, Robert J. Bonsignore, stating that the jury had done its job in weighing his victim’s death.

“The jury did their job of placing value on the emotional loss of the Curley family. It was a real loss that has merit and worth. I hope this judgment will bring them closure in one aspect of their pain,” he said in the statement.

Bonsignore, who was not paid for representing Jaynes, said his client asked him not to mount a defense that would draw out the trial.

“He said, ‘I do not want to draw this out. I do not want the facts rehashed because it will cause great pain to the family,”‘ Bonsignore said.

Bonsignore said his client has no assets, and would not be able to pay the jury award.

The Middlesex Superior Court jury began deliberations after closing arguments Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, family members testified about their devastation over the boy’s death.

Earlier Tuesday, Frisoli introduced gruesome pieces of evidence from the case, including photos of Curley’s dead body and the Rubbermaid container that held the boy’s body when it was thrown into a Maine river.

Prosecutors said Sicari and Jaynes were sexually obsessed with the boy and lured him from his Cambridge neighborhood in October 1997 with the promise of a new bike. They then smothered him with a gasoline-soaked rag when he resisted their sexual advances.

The highly publicized killing renewed calls to bring back the death penalty to Massachusetts, with Jeffrey’s father, Robert Curley, leading the charge. The measure failed by one vote in the Legislature in 1997.

In May, the Curleys filed a $200 million federal lawsuit against the North American Man-Boy Love Association, claiming Jaynes was incited by the group.

Frisoli said that the family was suing the organization “to at least try and stop those kinds of activities.”

Sicari didn’t respond to the lawsuit and wasn’t represented in court.