A SANDHURST instructor from East Lancashire has been cleared of misconduct in a public office after he received cash in exchange for scoops on the Royal princes.

Colour sergeant John Hardy, from Oswaldtwistle, was on trial at the Old Bailey in London after he received more than £23,700 for providing journalists from the Sun information about Harry and William and others on 34 occasions.

His wife Claire, who was accused of collecting tip-off fees for her husband, was cleared of aiding and abetting him.

Reporters working with Mr Hardy had denied they were ‘greedy’ and always claimed they were working in the public interest, highlighting important army issues including equipment shortages, bullying, security problems and sex scandals from the tip offs they received.

Four journalists and the Hardys had denied the charges against them and the jury deliberated for 48 hours 39 minutes before clearing them.

The families of the defendants held hands and wept as the not guilty verdicts were delivered.

During the trial, the court was told Mr Hardy was paid £4,000 for a picture of Prince William dressed up for a party in a bikini, but the retired officer, who was in Australia at the time, told jurors it had never existed.

Speaking after the verdict, Paul Schofield, from Farleys solicitors, in Blackburn, which acted on behalf of Mr Hardy, said the couple hoped they would now be able to get on with the rest of their lives.

He said: “Mr and Mrs Hardy are decent people. They are a nice family and I am so pleased for my client and his family.

“It has been a real ordeal for them for the last three years and I am so pleased that justice has been done.”

The pair were on trial alongside senior journalists from the tabloid. They were also 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 following a trial.

Speaking outside court, Mr Larcombe, whose source between February 2006 and October 2008 was Mr Hardy, called for the ‘witch hunt’ against his colleagues to end.

He said: “There is no celebration while this witch hunt continues against my colleagues who are still facing the nightmare that I hopefully one day will wake up from.”

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

Kay, Shanahan and Webster were charged with conspiring with Ministry of Defence 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.

Mr Larcombe had been charged with aiding and abetting Mr Hardy, 44, to commit misconduct in a public office.

The journalists’ acquittals will come as yet another blow to the multimillion-pound Operation Elveden investigation into newspapers’ dealings with public officials.

So far, just one News of the World reporter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been found guilty of paying a corrupt official following a trial.

Former Sun editor Rebekah Brooks was found not guilty of signing off payments to public officials last year.