LONDON – Former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan was jailed for three years yesterday for perjury, following a high-profile libel trial that revolved around newspaper claims about his sex life.
Sheridan (46) was convicted in December of lying during a successful defamation action against the News of the Worldnewspaper in 2006 where he was awarded £200,000 (€230,000) in damages.
He was found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of lying about the newspapers claims that he was an adulterer who visited swingers’ clubs, the Press Association reported.
Sheridan’s wife Gail, who has vowed to stand by her husband, was also accused of lying to the jury at the Court of Session in Edinburgh in 2006. But she was acquitted when the crown dropped the case against her last month.
Throughout his perjury trial Sheridan maintained his innocence, claiming he was the victim of a vendetta by the police and a conspiracy involving the News of the Worldand colleagues within the Scottish Socialist Party.
Presenting his own defence, Sheridan had called Andy Coulson, a former News of the Worldeditor who resigned last week as prime minister David Cameron's communications chief, to give evidence. Mr Coulson quit after accusations resurfaced in recently over phone-hacking at the paper when he was at the helm.
But the High Court jury in the end convicted him of five of six allegations in a single charge of perjury against him, relating to his evidence during the civil case.
A News of the Worldspokesman said Sheridan had been jailed for lying to secure victory when he sued the paper for defamation.
“As we have made clear, we have an appeal lodged against that defamation verdict and we now look forward to that appeal succeeding in Scotlands Court of Session,” the spokesman said.
Sheridan said he would appeal against the perjury conviction and launch a legal action against the " News of the World, the Metropolitan Police, and Glenn Mulcaire over phone-hacking". Private investigator Mulcaire was given a six-month jail term in 2007 for hacking into the voicemail messages of sport and fashion figures. The scandal, also marked by the jailing of News of the Worldroyal editor Clive Goodman, led to Mr Coulson's resignation, although he always denied knowing anything about phone-hacking at the paper.
Sheridan said his solicitors would begin to contact people on a dossier of Scottish names handed to them whose phones may have been hacked. – (Reuters)