‘In another overwhelming victory for the Mail and its journalism, the High Court today ruled that Prince Harry, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Elton John and other claimants would have to pay the Mail’s legal costs on an “indemnity basis” – a rare legal procedure deployed when a case has been pursued in an improper way. The Mail’s legal costs are £35m.

‘Mr Justice Nicklin ruled that the way legal teams for Prince Harry and the other claimants ran the case was “unreasonable to a high degree”, and that “allegations of the utmost seriousness were advanced before the evidential foundation for many of them had been established”.

‘His judgment is a devastating critique of an attempt to destroy a newspaper and the reputations of its journalists, editors and executives.

‘From well before the trial started, the claimants’ lawyers knew that their main witness had denied making the preposterous allegations on which the claims were based.

‘Despite this collapse in evidence to support the extremely serious allegations of “abhorrent criminal activity, crimes and terrible and reprehensible covert acts” by the Mail, they were emblazoned in a lurid press release issued on behalf of Baroness Lawrence, Prince Harry and the other claimants, with the exception of Sir Simon Hughes. The allegations were not withdrawn, and were pursued until the bitter end of the trial.

‘This placed a huge burden on the Mail to defend the reputations of its innocent journalists and the paper itself.

‘The truth is that these outrageous claims should never have been brought. That they were pursued raises disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession.

‘Of the most profound concern, however, is that Mr Justice Nicklin’s ruling confirms that those behind this action against the Mail pursued the claims as part of “a coordinated media and litigation campaign designed to drag (the Mail) into the spotlight, challenge its position at the Leveson Inquiry, and use legal claims as part of a broader campaign” to resuscitate Part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry.

‘This case was a vital element in an insidious strategy by the newspaper-hating zealots of Hacked Off, using fascist, orgy-loving Max Mosley’s millions, and support from Hugh Grant to impose statutory regulation on the press as a whole.

‘In Mr Justice Nicklin’s judgment last month, not a single one of the 97 allegations made against the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday was upheld.

‘We thank Mr Justice Nicklin for the care he has taken over this application, and throughout the litigation. The Mail has worked continuously for the past four and a half years to defend the reputations of its hard-working and honest journalists against smears that date back three decades and would have destroyed their careers.'