The Times has won permission to use parts of leaked documents in its defence of a defamation action brought against it by a man it described as an “underworld king”.

Mr Justice Tugendhat held at the High Court that the newspaper’s rights under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights would be infringed if it could not use at least some information from leaked confidential documents from law enforcement agencies.

The Metropolitan Police and Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) sued the newspaper and journalist Michael Gillard for breach of confidence after The Times published an article about David Hunt which was based on leaked confidential documents.