Sir Salman Rushdie has received an apology in the High Court over a libellous book written about his time under police protection.

Ron Evans, a convicted fraudster who was part of the Special Branch squad looking after the author when his life was under threat, has made an apology through his solicitor on 11 counts of falsehoods.

Evans wrote a book called On Her Majesty's Service which was to have been published at the beginning of the month, but this was delayed after it was serialised in the Mail on Sunday and Sir Salman, 61, first became aware of its contents.

The book's publisher, John Blake Publishing Ltd, pulped the 4,000 copies which were printed but never published after discovering that substantial parts of two chapters were untrue. Parts of the book have now been re-written.

The original book included a claim that the security officers who guarded Sir Salman during the fatwa against him over his 1988 book The Satanic Verses once locked him in a cupboard and went for a drink, and alleged that his third wife, Elizabeth West, married him for his money.

Mr Justice Teare made a Declaration of Falsity against Evans, his ghost writer Douglas Thompson, and the publisher of On Her Majesty's Service, John Blake Publishing.

Sir Salman, who did not seek damages, said after the hearing: "This has been an unattractive affair.

"My only interest was to establish the truth. I'm happy that the court has made its declaration of falsity and that the authors and publishers have recognised their falsehoods and apologised. As far as I am concerned that's the end of the matter."

Sir Salman was controversially knighted in 2007 and sparked riots in Muslim countries. In Pakistan, one minister said a suicide bomb attack would be a justified response.

In the country, effigies of the Queen and Sir Salman were burned in the eastern city of Multan as students chanted "Kill him! Kill him!"

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