Senior journalists at The Sun expressed a mixture of relief and anger as their three-year “ordeal” ended when they were cleared of paying public officials for scoops, including titbits on the princes William and Harry.

Four Sun journalists, including chief reporter John Kay and royal editor Duncan Larcombe, have been cleared at the Old Bailey in London of paying public officials for stories.

A stream of “gossip and tittle-tattle” about Prince William and Harry’s time at Sandhurst was leaked to The Sun by greedy public officials, a court heard.

British police arrested three people including the royal editor of The Sun yesterday, a source said, in an escalation of the long-running phone hacking scandal.