Judges ‘understand disappointment’ as they cut Leveson 2 inquiry into press

 Leveson 2 will not go ahead, the High Court has ruled, as it rejected an appeal from victims of press intrusion.

Christopher Jefferies, Kate and Gerry Mccann and Jacqui Hames brought a judicial review in a bid to force the Government to reconsider its decision to cancel the second part of the Leveson Inquiry.

But their case was rejected yesterday by Lord Justice Davis and Mr Justice Ouseley. Lord Justice Davis said: “I can readily understand their bitter disappointment at what has eventuated. But I am afraid that sympathy cannot override the law, and I can see absolutely no basis for these grounds of claim ... achieving the result which the claimants seek.”

The second part of the inquiry was due to look into unlawful conduct within media organisations as well as relations between police and the press.

But Matt Hancock, the then culture secretary, announced in March that reopening the “costly and timeconsuming” inquiry, which reported on press regulation and ethics in 2012, was not “the right way forward”.

Mr Jefferies, a Bristol landlord, who was wrongly accused of the murder of Joanna Yeates in 2010, told the Leveson Inquiry he was “vilified” by the media. The Mccanns complained of press intrusion after their daughter Madeleine went missing in Portugal in 2007. Ms Hames, a former detective and Crimewatch presenter, received apologies and damages from News Group Newspapers, part of News UK, and Trinity Mirror over phone hacking and other illegal activity.