Former Dover MP Charlie Elphicke has had the amount of costs he has to pay the publisher of the Sunday Times reduced after a High Court defamation claim.

Elphicke, who was jailed for two years in September 2020 after he was convicted of sexually assaulting two women, sued Times Media Limited for libel over three articles published in The Sunday Times in 2018, including two which referenced an investigation of rape allegations against him.

The former Conservative MP ended his defamation case before it went to trial in 2022, but asked to avoid paying the costs of multiple applications made by Times Media, saying the publisher had “wiped” evidence.

Times Media, which defended the libel claim, made a bid for Elphicke to pay costs.

In a 51-page ruling on Monday, former judge Victoria McCloud found Times Media failed to “preserve evidence” in the case and that it was “appropriate to mark the seriousness” by reducing the amount that Elphicke must pay to 80%.

Ms McCloud said Elphicke argued at a hearing in June 2023 that Times Media “had lost or destroyed critical information” that related to the allegations it made against him, including “the most serious matter [that] was said to be the loss or destruction of a journalist’s electronic telephone information”.

In the ruling, Ms McCloud said “the phone material would have clarified… whether for example the complainant was being inconsistent or whether words were being put into her mouth or whether there was another motivating factor such as money, rejection, or pressure from anyone else”.

In a post this morning on X, formerly known as Twitter, Elphicke maintained his innocence by stating the Times' “inaccurate reporting” saw him “wrongly sentenced to prison”.

He added: “The Times newspapers accused me of a crime that I did not commit.

“As the judgment noted, the police told the Times newspapers that they looked into the matter and it didn't amount to any criminal offences.

“Nevertheless, the Times' inaccurate reporting saw me convicted in the court of public opinion and contributed to a serious miscarriage of justice that saw me wrongly sent to prison.

“It is unprecedented that any media outlet has been caught acting in the way that Times newspapers did, particularly an organisation that claims to be the national newspaper of records.

“That's why it's time for a change of management and culture at Times newspapers.”

The former judge added that Times Media had “ample opportunity to preserve the electronic information concerned”.

A hearing in June 2023 heard that Times Media’s lawyers said its “journalist’s loss of phone was inadvertent” and that Elphicke had “chosen not to pursue issues relating to the defendant’s disclosure before discontinuing his claim”.

According to the judgment, the publisher argued that Elphicke “had litigated his claim aggressively, making serious allegations against the defendant and its journalists, its witness and the complainant”.

But Ms McCloud ruled that Times Media had “a duty to preserve evidence when on notice of proceedings or likely proceedings”.

She added that “failures to preserve evidence when on notice to do so, and wrongful collateral use of witness statements” are “not matters which require significant consideration of documents and attendance notes: they go to the heart of the fairness of proceedings”.

Elphicke was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault committed in 2007 and in 2016 after a trial at Southwark Crown Court in 2019.

Times Media has been approached for comment.