HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan

HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
Court	High Court of Justiciary
Full case name	Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan
Decided	Ongoing
Case history
Related action	Sheridan v News International
Court membership
Judge sitting	Lord Bracadale

Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan is the 2010 criminal prosecution of Tommy Sheridan, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament and his wife Gail for perjury in relation to the earlier civil case Sheridan v News International. Gail Sheridan has been cleared, but no conclusion has yet been reached in the case against Tommy Sheridan.

Background

Main article: Sheridan v News International

In 2006, Tommy Sheridan, formerly convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), successfully sued the newspaper News of the World for defamation after they printed a series of articles containing allegations that he had had affairs and visited sex clubs. Sheridan was awarded £200,000 in damages, which he has still not received pending an appeal. Controversy over the case led to a split in the SSP shortly afterwards, with Sheridan forming a breakaway party Solidarity.

In August 2006 a number of SSP activists came forward to claim that Sheridan had held meetings with them, where he made admissions inconsistent with his evidence in the court case, in particular allegedly admitting that he had had affairs and visited sex clubs. In October 2006, the News of the World released a videotape which allegedly showed Sheridan confessing to attending the club and admitting this to the SSP Executive

On 2 October 2006, the Procurator Fiscal decided that there were grounds for an investigation into perjury, and instructed Lothian and Borders Police to proceed. In February 2007 the Crown Office asked Lothian and Borders Police undertake a full inquiry after receiving a preliminary report, which was scaled up in May 2007, with the number of officers assigned to the case doubling to 20.

During late 2006 and early 2007 the police interviewed several SSP members and other witnesses, and seized computing equipment that had been used to type the minutes of SSP meetings.

On 16 December 2007 Tommy Sheridan was charged with perjury. During February 2008 six more people were charged with perjury: Graeme McIver, John Penman, Pat Smith and Rosemary Byrne (all members of Sheridan's new party Solidarity who had been at the disputed SSP executive meeting of November 2004) plus Sheridan's wife, Gail and her father, Angus Healy.

The Trial

Preliminary hearings

On 13 July 2009, at a preliminary hearing, a full statement of the indictment against Tommy and Gail Sheridan was made public. Both were charged with perjury in relation to several issues at the civil trial, and Tommy Sheridan was also charged with subornation of perjury through attempting to persuade Colin Fox to commit perjury at this trial.

Representation

Alex Prentice is leading the prosecution.

Initially, Sheridan hired Donald Findlay to defend him, but he later dropped him in favour of Margaret Scott, who represented Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in the Lockerbie bombing trial. Gail is represented by Paul McBride.

On 11 October it was announced that Sheridan had dismissed Margaret Scott, and would conduct his own defence, although he retained his solicitor Aamer Anwar.

The full trial started on 4 October 2010 at the Glasgow High Court before Lord Bracadale, with a jury of 13 women and 2 men, mostly younger women with one ethnic minority juror. On 15 December the judge excused one of the women jurors from serving further, the trial continued with 14 jurors.

On 25 November and again on 2 December the prosecution removed a number of charges from the indictment.

Prosecution case

An important issue is the crucial SSP executive meeting of 9 November 2004, where Sheridan resigned as convenor. 16 witnesses who were present have claimed that he did admit to visiting Cupids sex club in Manchester at this meeting. Barbara Scott, the minute secretary, has claimed that the minutes and her notes support this claim.

Further evidence presented includes a tape which was supposedly filmed secretly a few days after this meeting. If genuine it shows Sheridan making a "foul-mouthed tirade" containing statements inconsistent with his evidence in the civil trial, but he disputes its authenticity.. Under cross-examination Alan McCombes denied scripting the video, as alleged by Sheridan. Bob Bird, Scottish editor of the News of the World, gave evidence about how the paper acquired the tape.

Katrine Trolle, a Danish woman who was the SSP candidate in Aberdeen North in the Scottish Parliament election, 2003, claimed that she had had an affair with Sheridan and visited Cupids sex club with him on 27th September 2002. This evidence was supported by Ruth Adamson, a former housemate of Trolle, and her ex-boyfriend Ralph Barnett, who claimed that Sheridan did spend the night with Trolle. Gary Clark, a former professional footballer and childhood friend of Sheridan, claimed to have visited a club in Manchester with Sheridan which showed pornographic videos. Anvar Khan, a News of the World journalist, claimed that she had visited Cupids sex club with Sheridan and had an affair with him. This was supported by Elizabeth Quinn, a former neighbour of Khan, who claimed to have seen Khan and Sheridan appear from the direction of a bedroom. A former worker in Cupids. and another witness, claimed to have seen Sheridan in Cupids. A number of SSP activists also claimed that in the course of discussions Sheridan had made admissions about his personal life inconsistent with his evidence in the civil trial.

The final part of the prosecution case involved a sex party which Sheridan allegedly attended at the Moat House Hotel in Glasgow. A witness claimed that he saw Sheridan at the hotel, but refused to say who his partner was at the time. On 25 November the prosecution dropped all charges against Tommy and Gail Sheridan in relation to this party.

On 2 December the prosecution completed its case. It dropped the charge of subornation of perjury on the grounds of lack of corroboration, and some points from the charges of perjury against both Tommy and Gail Sheridan.

Defence case

The defence opened its case on 3 December, both Sheridans declined to act as a witnesses themselves. Many of the witnesses called by Sheridan were members of Solidarity, his own party, including Hugh Kerr and Rosemary Byrne. He also called Andy Coulson, Downing Street director of communications and former News of the World editor.

Four witnesses who were present at the crucial SSP executive meeting of 9 November 2004, John Penman, Rosemary Byrne, Patricia Smith and Graeme McIver, have claimed that Sheridan did not admit to visiting a sex club at the meeting.

On 17 December the defence case completed. The prosecution dropped the last remaining charge against Gail Sheridan, who was then cleared.

It is expected that Alex Prentice will give his closing speech on 20 December, Sheridan will give his the following day, and Lord Bracadale will then give his summing-up.

See also

• sheridantrial.blogspot.com giving detailed coverage of trial