George Best's sister and her husband have been awarded hefty libel damages over newspaper allegations about the support they gave to the soccer legend when he was ill.
The amount Barbara and Norman McNarry received from the Mail on Sunday was not disclosed, but their solicitor Paul Tweed said it was "very substantial".
David Ringland QC, for the McNarrys, told the High Court in Belfast the action against publishers Associated Newspapers Ltd had been settled. The terms were not disclosed.
An agreed statement read in court by the paper's barrister Peter Cush referred to an article in the paper last December under the heading: "Alex 'disgusted' at Best family snub" concerning the support given to Best by his family when he was ill.
Mr Cush said the Mail on Sunday unreservedly accepted that any adverse inferences in the article were totally unjustified and acknowledged that Best's sister Barbara and his brother-in-law Norman McNarry and the rest of the family were fully supportive at all times. He added: "The defendant sincerely apologises to Norman and Barbara McNarry for the distress and upset caused by the article."
Mr Tweed, a specialist libel lawyer, said: "Although the newspaper now accepts that they had been provided with a completely false story, it should never have been published in the first instance without an appropriate check on the facts."