John Kay, the Sun’s former chief reporter, Fergus Shanahan, the newspaper’s executive editor, Geoff Webster, its deputy editor, and reporter Duncan Larcombe were all found not guilty of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office after a jury deliberated for 10 days.

The bribery allegations risked further shame for New York- based News Corp.’s U.K. unit, whose reputation was tarnished by revelations of widespread phone-hacking by senior editorial staff.

Today’s verdicts will come as a blow to the London Metropolitan Police Service’s probe into corruption at the publisher’s U.K. tabloids, which has cost millions of pounds and led to just one conviction of a journalist, who can’t be identified for legal reasons.

Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive officer of the U.K. unit, and four others were acquitted of bribery, obstruction of justice and intercepting voice mails in June after an eight-month trial.

John Hardy, a former army officer, and Claire Hardy, his wife, were also found not guilty by the jury.