Among the senior journalists who were on trial at the Old Bailey were chief reporter John Kay, 71, and royal editor Duncan Larcombe, 39.

Executive editor Fergus Shanahan, 60, and deputy editor Geoff Webster, 55, were also cleared over allegations they signed off payments for stories involving Princes William and Harry when they were at Sandhurst.

Kay, Shanahan and Webster were charged with conspiring with Ministry of Defence official Bettina Jordan-Barber, 42, to commit misconduct in a public office between 2004 and 2012.

Afterwards, there were emotional scenes as the journalists embraced tearful family and friends who had supported them throughout the trial.

Outside court, Larcombe called for the "witch hunt" against colleagues to end, and said he hoped that one day he would wake up from the "nightmare" he had been living since his arrest three years ago.

Kay said: "It's a great relief that a three-year ordeal is over. I just hope that this result bears fruit for other colleagues in a similar predicament."

And Shanahan added that the trial had been an "terrible ordeal" for the families of all those involved as he expressed his hope that future cases would end in the "right result".

The court heard that Kay's "number one military contact" Jordan-Barber had received £100,000 from the paper for the stories she sold.

She was sentenced to 12 months in jail in January, after admitting conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office.
The details of her sentence could not be revealed until the verdicts were announced.

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

The retired officer worked as a Sandhurst Royal Military Academy instructor between February 2006 and October 2008.
He received more than £23,700 for giving Larcombe information on the two princes and others on 34 occasions.

He was allegedly paid £4,000 at one stage for a picture of Prince William dressed up for a party in a bikini - he told jurors the picture had never existed.

Hardy was found not guilty of misconduct in a public office while his wife Claire, 41, accused of collecting tip-off fees for her husband, was cleared of aiding and abetting him.

All the defendants had denied the charges against them.

The trial was a result of the multi-million-pound Operation Elveden inquiry into newspapers' dealings with public officials.

So far only one journalist from the now defunct News Of The World has been found guilty of paying a corrupt official.