A Melbourne man has won a defamation case against search giant Google over images of him alongside well-known Underworld figures that appeared in its search results.


A six-person Supreme Court jury found Michael Trkulja had been defamed by the images, which he first contacted Google about removing in 2009.


When Mr Trkulja's name was typed into Google's image search, photos had showed up of him alongside gangland figures Tony Mokbel and Dennis Tanner.


Google search results also linked to a page on a now defunct website, Melbourne Crime, which had published photos of the men labelled with his name.


Mr Trkulja said he had never initially intended to sue Google but had been galvanised into action after his request for the content to be removed from its searches in 2009 was not granted.


Google's lawyers argued that the search engine giant was not the publisher of the material and was only indexing the link to the website and the images in its results.


The company used the "innocent dissemination" defence, arguing it was providing links to the content without knowing that the material was defamatory.


However, the jury found Google's defence of the images broke down because it did not take any steps to remove the images from its searches once Mr Trkulja's lawyers contacted them.


The jury found the search engine giant was not liable for the search results themselves, as Mr Trkulja had incorrectly filled out a form for reporting offensive material by not including the URL of the content to which he objected.


The website that hosted the image has since been taken down and the images or the article are no longer indexed by Google's search engine.


Supreme Court Justice Peach is expected to deliver a ruling on damages on Monday week.


Mr Trkulja said he was "over the moon" because of the decision.


"I feel great. I feel vindicated. It was a David and Goliath battle, a single man standing against a giant using all money and power available to them to squash an innocent person," Mr Trkulja said.


Mr Trkulja, who has been living in Australia for 42 years, said he had never been involved in any criminal activity. He said being wrongly associated with the gangland figures had taken its toll on his life.


"I wouldn't wish to my worst enemy what I went through," he said.


Google declined to comment on the case.