New York City has agreed to a $40 million settlement with five men who were falsely convicted for the vicious rape and beating of a jogger in Central Park in 1989, a city official said.

The deal, which still needs the approval of the city comptroller and a federal judge, all but closes the book on one of the most sensational crime cases in New York history.

The five black and Hispanic defendants were found guilty as teenagers in 1990 over the attack on a white woman who had gone for a run in the park.

They served from six to 13 years in prison before their convictions were thrown out in 2002 when evidence connected someone else to the crime.

More than a decade ago, they brought a $250 million civil rights lawsuit against police and prosecutors.

The attack on 28-year-old investment banker Trisha Meili was one of the most notorious crimes in New York City history and came to be seen as a lurid symbol of the city’s racial and class divide and its rampant crime.

It gave rise to the term “wilding” for urban mayhem by marauding teenagers.

When Ms Meili was found in undergrowth, more than 75 per cent of her blood had drained from her body and her skull was smashed. She was in a coma for 12 days, left with permanent damage, and remembers nothing about the attack.

She later went public as a motivational speaker and wrote a book about her experience.

Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson, both 14 at the time, Antron McCray and Yusef Salaam, who was 15, and Korey Wise, then aged 16, were rounded up and arrested. After hours of interrogation, four of them gave confessions on video.

At the trials, their lawyers argued the confessions were coerced. At the time, DNA testing was not sophisticated enough to make or break the case.

In 2002, a re-examination of the case found that DNA on the victim’s sock pointed to Matias Reyes, a murderer and serial rapist who confessed that he alone attacked the jogger.

Then district attorney Robert Morgenthau stopped short of declaring the five innocent but withdrew all charges and did not seek a retrial. The statute of limitations for charging Reyes had run out; he is serving a life sentence for other crimes.

The case that stood as a symbol of urban lawlessness became instead an example of a colossal breakdown in the legal system.

Civil rights activist the Rev Al Sharpton said in a statement that the proposed settlement signifies “a monumental victory” for the men and their families.

“It is also a victory for those in the community that stood with them from day one and believed in their innocence in this case,” Mr Sharpton said. “As supporters, we were viciously attacked for standing with them, but we were on the right side of history.”

Jonathan C Moore, a lawyer for the five men, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department.

Andrew G Celli, a lawyer who took an interest in the case, said: “A settlement this large, this dynamic, will have an impact. It will cause police and prosecutors to think a bit more carefully about the ramifications of a particular investigation.”

Agencies