Mr Justice Maguire, sitting in the High Court in Belfast, dismissed a lawsuit which argued the state was in breach of a legal obligation to carry out a full and independent investigation into the treatment of the fourteen men in 1971, The Irish News reports.

However, he quashed a PSNI decision not to take further steps to identify and potentially prosecute those responsible for criminal acts.

Handing down his judgment, he said: “It seems likely to the court that if the events here at issue were to be replicated today the outcome would probably be that the European Court of Human Rights would accept the description of torture in respect of these events as accurate.”

Solicitor Darragh Mackin of Belfast firm KRW Law said the judgment was “truly momentous in the Hooded Men’s campaign for justice”.

He continued: “For the first time, the court has directly held that the description of ‘torture’ is an accurate reflection of the treatment to which our clients were subject.

“For over 45 years, it has always been our clients’ case that they were the victims of torture. Today’s judgment exonerates their campaign.

“We look forward to the next step, and for the first time an investigation into the tortuous treatment to which they were subject.”