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Andrew Caldecott QC, the defence barrister representing the defendants Marco Benatti and Marco Tinelli, said that there was in fact "no evidence whatsoever", technical or otherwise, of any concerted action by the pair in relation to last year's internet campaign at the heart of the 62-year-old advertising tycoon's case.

Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP Group, is suing Milan-based media company, FullSix, its founder Benatti and his alleged "lieutenant", the company's chief executive Tinelli for libel.

He has accused them of disseminating blogs alleging criminal activity and money laundering, a "vicious" jpeg image of himself and Daniela Weber, the chief operating officer of WPP Italy, and of labelling them "the mad dwarf and the nympho schizo".

Weber is also suing for breach of privacy.

Sorrell's counsel, Desmond Browne QC, had told Mr Justice Eady, who is hearing the case in London without a jury, yesterday that there was "overwhelming" forensic evidence against the two men.

The case is addressing the aftermath of a broken close friendship between Benatti and Weber and of Sorrell's termination of Benatti's consultancy as country manager for WPP Italy.

The defendants deny that they were responsible for disseminating them or the privacy-infringing emails.

Caldecott said that the FullSix stance was that if anyone in its workforce was responsible, it was a highly regrettable piece of personal misconduct, which had nothing to do with the company's official business and was wholly unauthorised and, in all the circumstances, the company, Benatti and Tinelli were not liable.

The company also said that, while there was evidence that someone unknown at FullSix may very well have been involved in the jpeg, there was very little, if any, evidence directly linking FullSix to a blog containing alleged libellous comments regarding Sorrell and Weber.

"In neither case do the claimants have any witness who can give any direct evidence that Mr Benatti and Mr Tinelli did it.

"They [the prosecution] therefore say that, in all the circumstances, the court may draw that inference.

"They say their case is a jigsaw puzzle missing only one significant piece -- the precise detail of how Mr Tinelli achieved the publication of this material.

"We say, without intending any disrespect to a great national dish, that on true analysis, a bowl of spaghetti Milanese is a better image for the claimants' case -- jumbled pieces of evidence superficially tasty in parts but whose individual strands lead either nowhere or to muddled conclusions or to ends, which are simply obscure," Caldecott said.

Caldecott said that from early January 2006, more than two months before publication, Sorrell had thrown "the kitchen sink in terms of investigative muscle'' at Mr Benatti's business affairs, following his dismissal.

Damaging newspaper articles began to associate FullSix and some of its directors with Sorrell's investigation.

As chief executive, Tinelli reacted to the collateral damage this was causing by emailing Sorrell at the start of March 2006 expressing his concern for his group's survival, its independence and the need for its energies not to be drained by legal battles.

"Mr Browne has referred to this case as Goliath and Goliath but I'm afraid in terms of the respective sizes and power, the contest resembles the Biblical story rather than Mr Browne's re-writing of it,'' Mr Caldecott said.

He asked what FullSix could possibly gain by "climbing into the ring'' with Sorrell and WPP.

If Tinelli's words to Sorrell were sincere, publication of the offending material later that month was "an own goal of quite spectacular proportions''.

On the same day that "someone'' was preparing the jpeg, Tinelli emailed his staff advocating positive counter measures, although he did include the "rude'' phrase about the dwarf and the nympho.

Telling staff to keep good ideas for their clients, he said: "I hear some of the teams are brainstorming about negative counter measures. I want to be clear. I want none of that.''

Caldecott said that the claim that this was a diversionary tactic to hide Tinelli's involvement did not add up.

"One of the frequent themes in this case is the way in which people depicted as those trying to conceal their involvement in this affair suddenly veer from being brilliant Professor Moriarty to Inspector Clouseau in a matter of minutes.

"Let us assume that this email was Professor Moriarty covering his tracks, hiding his sinister intentions.

"Why does he suddenly don the overcoat of Inspector Clouseau and include an entirely gratuitous hostile observation to the claimants?

"He would hardly be advancing his interests, one would think, if that was what he was about.

"Mr Tinelli is in fact a young businessman of dynamism and vision. He is not a kamikaze pilot under the remote control of Mr Benatti.''

Turning to Benatti, Caldecott said even Sorrell described him as extremely engaging and as someone who engendered great loyalty in his followers.

He had been a close friend and confidant of Weber for 21 years before their falling out in autumn 2005.

Weber claimed it was calculated opportunism on Benatti's part while he said it was a mix of misunderstanding and disagreement over business strategy.

Whichever it was, said counsel, Benatti tried to heal the rift and was only directly rude to her on one occasion, by phone, for which he had apologised.

"Sorry, as we all know, is the hardest word,'' he added.

Caldecott said that at the turn of this year, there was evidence that Benatti was properly concerned for Weber.

"His case is that simply he would never stoop so low as this jpeg. He also says that in relation to the blog, he would never have included, as the blog did, an untrue allegation that Ms Weber had had an affair with him.''

Caldecott said that, interestingly, the perpetrator of the publications, "this person with a genius for covering his tracks'', seemed interested in dragging FullSix in rather than hiding its involvement.

He added that there was some evidence of a "malign presence'' within FullSix, as shown by an email highly damaging to the company's interests which was sent from within FullSix to a number of major companies in May 2006.

Caldecott rejected Sorrell's case that Benatti had the knowledge and Tinelli the technical know-how, with Tinelli acting as Benatti's "poodle''.

He said Benatti did not know all the matters contained in the blog and Tinelli denied he had the necessary technical knowledge or that he had ever heard of onion routing (a technique for anonymous communication).

The case depended on Tinelli being happy to help destroy the reputation and interests of a group, part of which he had himself founded and created, simply to indulge Benatti.