The Metropolitan Police has been ordered to pay three men a total of £414,000 after a corrupt officer tried to frame them for the axe murder of Daniel Morgan.

Sitting at the High Court on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the damages would "highlight and condemn the egregious and shameful behaviour" of Detective Chief Superintendent David Cook.

It marked the end of a marathon fight for compensation by Jonathan Rees, Glenn and Garry Vian, who came under investigation after Mr Morgan was found dead in March 1987.

The victim was found with an axe embedded in his face in a car park at the Golden Lion in Sydenham, south-east London.

There were no witnesses to the killing, but Mr Rees and the Vians were charged with murder in 2008 after Gary Eaton, a criminal, claimed they had been nearby.

The three men spent two years in jail before the case collapsed in March 2011 after it emerged that Eaton had been "coached" by Cook.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: "Honest belief in guilt cannot justify prosecuting a suspect on false evidence."

She added: "There is no place for any form of 'noble-cause' justification for corrupt practices in those trusted to uphold the law."