The High Court has dismissed in full the phone hacking and unlawful information gathering claims brought by Prince Harry, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and five other high-profile claimants against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.

In a lengthy judgment, Mr Justice Nicklin concluded that the claimants had failed to prove their allegations and accepted the evidence of Associated's journalists regarding the lawful sourcing of the disputed stories.The ruling also rejected allegations that senior executives, including editor-in-chief Paul Dacre, had misled the Leveson Inquiry.

Associated Newspapers described the judgment as a major vindication of its journalism and stated that it would seek to recover its legal costs, which are estimated to exceed £50 million.A separate hearing will determine how those costs should be allocated among the claimants.

Prince Harry and Baroness Lawrence criticised the decision in a joint statement, describing it as a 'whitewash' and arguing that the court had been overly favourable to the newspaper group.

During the proceedings, the court also criticised aspects of the claimants' legal strategy, including the handling of serious allegations against Associated staff and the conduct of former Hacked Off director Evan Harris in relation to limitation issues.The judgment further found that key witness Gavin Burrows did not provide reliable evidence to support the claims.

The case, which lasted for several years and centred on allegations including phone hacking, illegal surveillance and other unlawful information gathering techniques, concludes with the court finding that none of the allegations against Associated Newspapers were proven on the balance of probabilities.