BRITAIN: Former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan has been awarded £200,000 (€296,000) in a defamation action against the News of the World over allegations that he cheated on his wife and took part in three-, four- and five-in-a-bed sex sessions and visited a "swingers" club.
A jury at the Court of Session took 2½ hours to return its verdict yesterday, on day 23 of the case.
The Glasgow Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), who finished the trial representing himself after sacking his lawyers, sued the tabloid after it printed the claims in 2004-05.
The verdict was initially met with a stunned silence in the courtroom before relatives of Mr Sheridan wept. His wife Gail, who had testified for him, hugged her husband for almost a minute.
The charismatic Mr Sheridan helped found the left-wing party which at one point had six members of the Scottish Parliament, and he led it until November 2004 when he stood down after the paper printed a story about an unnamed Holyrood politician who was a "spanking swinger".
It was based on claims by the paper's journalist Anvar Khan, with whom Mr Sheridan has admitted having a sexual relationship when he was single in 1992.
However, despite contested evidence that he had admitted at a party executive meeting to visiting a swingers club with her, Mr Sheridan successfully rubbished her testimony that she maintained a sexual relationship with him after he married his wife in June 2000.
Speaking outside the court, Mr Sheridan said: "We have over the last five weeks taken on one of the largest organisations on the planet, with the biggest amount of resources to pay for the most expensive legal team, to throw nothing but muck against me, my wife and my family.
"Well, brothers and sisters, what today's verdict proves is that working-class people, when they listen to the arguments, can differentiate the truth from the muck."
Of the News of the World, he said: "They are liars and we have proved that they are liars." He said that his victory was the equivalent of footballing minnows Gretna beating Real Madrid on penalties.
Scottish News of the World editor Bob Bird said the tabloid intended to appeal the verdict. He said he was "flabbergasted" by the jury's decision.
With the series of lurid allegations that Mr Sheridan indulged in swinger parties and cocaine-fuelled orgies, there was never a dull day at the trial for the hundreds who queued every day for seats in the court.
Few could have predicted that Mr Sheridan would sack his lawyers midway through the civil action and conduct his own defence.
The tension in court was electric as the MSP cross-examined parliamentary colleagues who accused him of lying - he accused them of plotting to oust him from the party. - (PA)