Sir Martin Sorrell, the WPP chief executive, yesterday accepted £120,000 agreed damages in settlement of his High Court privacy and libel actions against FullSix, Marco Benatti and Marco Tinelli without any admission of liability by the defendants.
Benatti and Tinelli said in a statement issued on their behalf: "Having accused the defendants in open court of lying and challenged them to explain themselves, Sorrell has fled the battlefield just as Marco Tinelli and Marco Benatti were poised to do just that.
"One can only conclude that Sir Martin now recognises that his case was fatally flawed. Marco Tinelli and Marco Benatti were ready and willing to give evidence.
"They were only prevented from doing so because Sorrell chose at the 11th hour, after days of wasted court time, to take the money he has had on offer since February 9 2007.
"FullSix is a small company whose sole wish is to carry on a successful and forward-looking business. This was why the defendants made generous payments into court on February 9 2007 without any admission of liability, making it clear that the blog was untrue and the jpeg unjustifiably intrusive, and that the defendants had never authorised the publication of either.
"Their offer should plainly have been accepted then and there. This whole trial has been an unnecessary waste of court time and resources.
"The defendants would have wished to proceed to verdict and a final determination in their favour, but ultimately recognised that they had a business to run, and that their commitments to clients and shareholders were more important."
The statement added that the defendants were making a nominal contribution of £50,000 towards the claimants' costs which "we understand are close to £2m''.
It is understood that the defence costs stand at £1m.
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