The BBC was last night under fire for blowing more than £600,000 on a legal battle to keep documents linked to the Martin Bashir scandal under wraps.

It comes as the Mail on Sunday can reveal that a judge has criticised the Corporation for a second time over its three-year campaign to keep swathes of emails secret.

In a series of stinging remarks, Judge Brian Kennedy highlighted the ‘disproportionate cost’ of its ‘burdensomely long’ legal fight.

Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with Princess Diana, in which the princess famously declared ‘there are three of us in this marriage’ – referring to Camilla, was a global scoop.

+3

Diana pictured during the Martin Bashir interview for BBC Panorama on November 20, 1995

+3

Martin Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with Princess Diana with Princess Diana was a global scoop

+3

The Corporation spent £536,000 on legal fees and £75,637 on unspecified ‘support services’ (Pictured, a general view of the BBC headquarters)

It later emerged that Bashir had shown Diana’s brother Earl Spencer forged bank statements to make Diana think her inner circle was selling her secrets.

An inquiry by Lord Dyson concluded that the BBC had covered up Bashir’s deceit but investigative journalist Andy Webb believed the BBC had not released all of its incriminating evidence. In June 2021, Mr Webb requested internal BBC emails sent between September 2020 and November 2020 that related to the Bashir scandal. After a long-running freedom of information battle, during which it was criticised by Judge Kennedy, the Corporation finally released 10,000 pages of heavily redacted documents earlier this year.

Many key passages were, however, blotted out, with more than 3,400 pages partially or fully redacted.

Now, in a new judgment obtained by the MoS, Judge Kennedy KC dismissed Mr Webb’s bid to force the BBC to disclose much of the material it had withheld – but he also again criticised the Corporation’s failure to properly search its files for the information the journalist had requested.

He wrote: ‘The journey on which the BBC has taken the appellant (and then the Tribunal) has been arduously and burdensomely long and hard.

‘It has also come at a disproportionate cost – not only in terms of significant delay to the administration of justice but also in terms of expense to the public purse and to public confidence in the ability of the public service broadcaster to deal with and answer legitimate information requests in a responsible, accountable and adequate way.’

The Corporation spent £536,000 on legal fees and £75,637 on unspecified ‘support services’.

Last night Mr Webb said: ‘Will there be any internal fallout from the judge’s criticisms? I suspect not.’ The BBC said it accepts ‘errors were made’ and took ‘extensive steps’ to rectify them.