The natural father of Baby Peter has been awarded £75,000 after wrongly being described in The People newspaper as a sex offender convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl.
Lawyers for the man, who can only be referred to as "KC", said the publishers of the Sunday newspaper were guilty of "one of the gravest libels imaginable".
Mr Justice Bean awarded KC the damages plus legal costs saying it was "difficult to think of any charge more calculated to lead to the revulsion and condemnation of a person's fellow citizens than the rape of a 14-year-old girl".
The newspaper's publishers, MGN Ltd, had apologised and offered to pay damages.
However the offer came late and was not enough to compensate the father for the
suffering and distress the "completely false" reports had caused, James Dingemans QC, appearing for KC, told Mr Justice Bean at a recent hearing.
The allegations against KC were contained in two paragraphs in a crime supplement about Baby P's mother, who had separated from KC.
They appeared in The People on September 19, 2010 in an article entitled "Tortured to death as mum turned a blind eye".
Peter Connelly died in Tottenham, north London, on August 3, 2007 at the hands of his mother, Tracey Connelly, her lover, Steven Barker, and their lodger, Barker's brother Jason Owen.
He had suffered more than 50 injuries despite being on the at-risk register and receiving 60 visits from social workers, police and health professionals during the final eight months of his life.
The trio were jailed after admitting causing or allowing his death.
Mr Dingemans said the allegations about the natural father in the wake of the tragedy were "shocking and appalling".
However, MGN treated KC "as if he didn't really matter".
Heather Rogers QC, appearing for MGN, told the High Court hearing: "This was a mistake that MGN regrets and it has apologised to the claimant, and I repeat that apology on its behalf in this court."
However, she denied KC had been badly treated, or that MGN had conducted any kind of "campaign" against him, or dismissed his legitimate complaint.
