Sir Elton John and David Furnish have accepted “significant” libel damages over a newspaper claim that their dog inflicted “Freddy Krueger-like injuries” on a child at a play date.

The couple brought proceedings against News Group Newspapers over a front page story in The Sun on Sunday in February.

Their solicitor, Jenny Afia, told Mr Justice Nicklin at the High Court today that the story, captioned “Elton’s Dog Did This To My Girl”, also appeared on the Sun’s website.