Eight newspapers including The Scotsman have apologised to retired teacher Christopher Jefferies over allegations made against him over the death of Bristol landscape architect Jo Yeates.

Mr Jefferies, who was Ms Yeates’s landlord, today accepted “substantial” undisclosed libel damages from the Johnston Press-owned title along with the Sun, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Record, Daily Express and Daily Star.

His solicitor, Louis Charalambous, told Mr Justice Tugendhat that “in recognition of the immense distress and damage” caused, they had all agreed to apologise and pay substantial damages for the “seriously defamatory” allegations made in the wake of the landscape architect’s death in December last year.

Mr Charalambous, head of the litigation department’s Presslaw team at law firm Simons Muirhead and Burton, said the newspapers had acknowledged the falsity of the allegations in question, which were contained in more than 40 articles published in late December 2010 and early January 2011.

“Christopher Jefferies is the latest victim of the regular witch hunts and character assassination conducted by the worst elements of the British tabloid media,” Mr Charalambous said outside court.

“Many of the stories published in these newspapers are designed to ‘monster’ the individual, in flagrant disregard for his reputation, privacy and rights to a fair trial.

“These newspapers have now apologised to him and paid substantial damages but they do so knowing that once the conditional fee agreement rules are changed next year victims of tabloid witch hunts will no longer have the same access to justice.”

Lawyer Bambos Tsiattalou, senior partner at Stokoe Partnership, advised Mr Jefferies following his arrest on December 30 2010 on suspicion of Ms Yeates’s murder – he was released on unconditional bail two days later and subsequently released from bail with no further action.

He said today: “We warned the media by letter, immediately following Mr Jefferies’ arrest, in the strongest possible terms to desist from publishing stories which were damaging or defamatory.

“We were dismayed that our warnings went unheeded and are pleased that the newspapers, in settling Mr Jefferies’ claims, have acknowledged the extent of the damage to his reputation.”

Mr Charalambous told the judge that Mr Jefferies had taught English at Clifton College for 34 years and was of good character.

He said many of the articles suggested there were strong grounds to suspect that Mr Jefferies had killed Ms Yeates, and several went on to allege he had acted in an inappropriate, over-sexualised manner with his pupils in the past, and that he invaded the privacy of his tenants in his capacity as a landlord of two flats in the building where he lived.

Some of the articles suggested he was an associate of a convicted paedophile, and that there were grounds to investigate whether he was responsible for an unsolved murder from 1974.

All the allegations were “entirely untrue”, Mr Charalambous said.

In particular, the newspapers accepted that Mr Jefferies had nothing to do with Ms Yeates’s death, that he helped the police as much as he could, and that there was no basis for suggesting he had ever acted inappropriately with any pupil during his long and distinguished career as a teacher.

Lawyers for the newspapers told the judge they very much regretted the distress caused and had agreed to pay Mr Jefferies substantial damages and his legal costs.

The offending articles were withdrawn from their websites when the complaint was received.

• A 33-year-old engineer has admitted killing Ms Yeates. Dutchman Vincent Tabak has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denies murder. Tabak, who lived next door to Ms Yeates, is due to go on trial accused of murder at Bristol Crown Court in October.