Sun journalists cleared after ‘ordeal’

SENIOR Sun expressed a mixture of relief and anger as their three-year “ordeal” ended when they were cleared of paying public officials for scoops, including titbits on the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

Chief reporter John Kay, 71, and royal editor Duncan Larcombe, 39, were found not guilty of wrongdoing over their contact with two military sources after a jury deliberated for more than 48 hours at the Old Bailey.

The Sun’s executive editor Fergus Shanahan, 60, and deputy editor Geoff Webster, 55, were also cleared over allegations they signed off payments.

Outside court, Larcombe called for the “witch hunt” against colleagues to end.

Kay said: “It’s a great relief that a three-year ordeal is over.”

Shanahan expressed his hope that future cases would end in the “right result”.

Shanahan and Webster were charged with conspiring with MoD official Bettina Jordan-Barber to commit misconduct in a public office between 2004 and 2012.

During that time, Kay’s “number one military contact” pocketed £100,000 from the Sun for a stream of stories she sold to the tabloid newspaper.

Webster also faced a second count of plotting misconduct with a serving officer in the armed forces in November 2010.

Larcombe was charged with aiding and abetting former colour sergeant John Hardy, 44, to commit misconduct in a public office.

Hardy was paid more than £23,700 for providing Larcombe with information on William, Harry and others on 34 occasions, the court was told. He was found not guilty of misconduct in a public office while wife Claire, 41was cleared of aiding and abetting him.