''Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan'' was the 2010 criminal prosecution of
Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan (born 7 March 1966) is a Scottish politician who served as convenor of Solidarity from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) from 1998 to 2004 and as co-convenor of Solidarity from 2 ...
, a former
Member of the Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; gd, Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA; sco, Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.
Electoral system
The add ...
and his wife Gail Sheridan for
perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
in relation to the earlier civil case ''
Sheridan v News Group Newspapers
''Sheridan v News Group Newspapers'' (''Thomas Sheridan v News Group Newspapers Ltd'') is a civil court case brought by Tommy Sheridan against the publishers of the ''News of the World'', which began in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland, ...
''.
[In Scotland criminal prosecutions in the High Court are normally brought in the name of the ]Lord Advocate
His Majesty's Advocate, known as the Lord Advocate ( gd, Morair Tagraidh, sco, Laird Advocat), is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved p ...
. Tommy Sheridan was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, whereas Gail was acquitted.
Background
In 2006, Tommy Sheridan, formerly convenor of the
Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP; gd, Pàrtaidh Sòisealach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Socialist Pairtie) is a left-wing political party campaigning for the establishment of an independent socialist Scotland.
The party was founded in 1998. It c ...
(SSP), successfully sued the newspaper ''
News of the World
The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national red top tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one ...
'' for defamation after they printed a series of articles containing allegations that an MSP had had affairs and visited a sex club. 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
''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti ...
.
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 admitting that he had had affairs and visited a swingers' club in Manchester. In October 2006, the ''News of the World'' released a videotape which showed Sheridan admitting that he had visited the club, and admitting that he had admitted 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
Lothian and Borders Police was the territorial police force for the Scottish council areas of the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian between 1975 and 2013. The force's headquarters were in Fettes ...
to proceed.
In February 2007, the
Crown Office
The Crown Office, also known (especially in official papers) as the Crown Office in Chancery, is a section of the Ministry of Justice (formerly the Lord Chancellor's Department). It has custody of the Great Seal of the Realm, and has certain ad ...
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.
[
]
In December 2007, Tommy Sheridan was charged with
perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
. During February 2008, six more people were charged with perjury: Graeme McIver, John Penman, Pat Smith and
Rosemary Byrne
Rosemary Byrne (born 3 March 1948, Irvine, North Ayrshire) is a Scottish politician who served as co-convenor of Solidarity from 2006 to 2019.
Byrne was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South of Scotland region from 2003 ...
(all members of Sheridan's new party
Solidarity
''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti ...
who had been at the disputed SSP executive meeting of November 2004) plus Sheridan's wife,
Gail and her father, Angus Healy.
Also in February 2008, Gail Sheridan was suspended from her job as a
flight attendant
A flight attendant, also known as steward/stewardess or air host/air hostess, is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are prima ...
with
British Airways
British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport.
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...
over the alleged theft of miniature bottles of alcohol. Later in the year she was cleared of the allegations of theft and re-instated to her job with BA. In 2010 she took voluntary redundancy from that job.
The trial
Preliminary hearings
At a preliminary hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh on 13 July 2009, 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 by attempting to persuade
Colin Fox to commit perjury at this trial.
Both accused took pleas in bar of trial on the basis of prejudicial pre-trial publicity, and sought to raise devolution minutes. At a preliminary hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh between 28 and 30 July 2010, the trial judge
Lord Bracadale
Alastair Peter Campbell, Lord Bracadale, KC is a retired senior Scottish judge.
Early life
Campbell was born on 18 September 1949 in Skye, Scotland, to Rev. Donald Campbell and Margaret Campbell. His family moved to Edinburgh when he was tw ...
, heard legal arguments on these matters. At the close of the hearing, the preliminary pleas were repelled and the devolution minutes refused. Due to the high-profile nature of the case, Lord Bracadale took the somewhat unusual step of issuing a note, setting forth his reasons for repelling the preliminary pleas and detailing his directions given to the jury with respect to media publicity.
Representation
The prosecution was led by
Alex Prentice
Alex Prentice KC is a leading Scottish lawyer.
He has held senior posts at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the body which normally carries out prosecutions in Scotland. He became an assistant Principal Advocate Depute in 2009, a ...
QC, his junior was David Nicolson.
Initially, Sheridan hired
Donald Findlay
Donald Russell Findlay KC (born 17 March 1951) is a Scottish advocate. He has also held positions as a vice-chairman of Rangers Football Club and twice Rector of the University of St Andrews. He is now chairman of his hometown football club Cowd ...
QC to defend him, but he later dropped him in favour of
Margaret Scott QC, who represented
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi ( ar, عبد الباسط محمد علي المقرحي, ; 1 April 1952 – 20 May 2012) was a Libyan who was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli, ...
in an appeal against his conviction for the
Lockerbie bombing. Junior counsel for Sheridan was Shelagh McCall. Gail was represented by
Paul McBride QC and Billy Lavelle. Her solicitor was John Paul Mowbray.
On 11 October it was announced that Sheridan had dismissed Margaret Scott, and would conduct his own defence. He retained his solicitor
Aamer Anwar, who the judge appointed as
amicus curiae
An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision o ...
.
The full trial started on 4 October 2010 at the Glasgow
High Court before
Lord Bracadale
Alastair Peter Campbell, Lord Bracadale, KC is a retired senior Scottish judge.
Early life
Campbell was born on 18 September 1949 in Skye, Scotland, to Rev. Donald Campbell and Margaret Campbell. His family moved to Edinburgh when he was tw ...
, with a jury of 13 women and 2 men, mostly younger women with one ethnic minority juror.
[Criminal trials in Scotland have a jury of 15 with verdicts by simple majority, see Trial by jury in Scotland.] 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 and 20 December the prosecution removed a number of charges from the indictment.
Prosecution case
An important issue was the crucial SSP executive meeting of 9 November 2004, where Sheridan resigned as convenor. 16 witnesses who were present claimed that he did admit to visiting Cupids sex club in Manchester at this meeting.
[BBC News – Witness claims Tommy Sheridan court win was 'OJ moment']
Bbc.co.uk (1 November 2010). Retrieved 2011-02-13. Barbara Scott, the minute secretary, claimed that the minutes and her notes support this claim.
An important piece of evidence was a tape which was filmed secretly a few days after this meeting, showing Sheridan making a "foul-mouthed tirade" containing statements inconsistent with his evidence in the civil trial. 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.][A full transcript of this tape was published in the ''News of the World'' on 26 December 2010, it may be available on their website, but not free.] While giving evidence, Bird said that emails relating to Sheridan may have been lost. The next day Tom Watson MP contacted the Information Commissioner, asking him to investigate whether the ''News of the World'' was in breach of the Data Protection Act.[Watson and Hickman '' Dial M for Murdoch'' p. 141]
Katrine Trolle, a Danish woman who was the SSP candidate in Aberdeen North in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election
The 2003 Scottish Parliament election was the second election of members to the Scottish Parliament. It was held on 1 May 2003 and it brought no change in terms of control of the Scottish Executive. Jack McConnell, the Labour Party MSP, rema ...
, claimed that she had had an affair with Sheridan (on one occasion in the bedroom in his home in Glasgow) and visited Cupids sex club with him on 27 September 2002. This was supported by a former housemate of Trolle and her ex-boyfriend who claimed that Sheridan spent the night with Trolle at her home in Dundee. 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 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 ][BBC News – Worker 'saw Tommy Sheridan at wife swapping club']
Bbc.co.uk (3 November 2010). Retrieved 2011-02-13. 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 chapter of the prosecution case involved a sex party which Sheridan allegedly attended at the Moat House Hotel in Glasgow. All charges related to this matter were dropped following Crown witness Matt McColl's testimony and cross examination. During his appearance in court he was warned for contempt of court due to his reluctance to name his then girlfriend and now wife, as well as agreeing he had previously told police that Mr Sheridan had not been at the Moat House.
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 Sheridans.
Defence case
The defence opened its case on 3 December. Both Sheridans declined to act as witnesses themselves. Many of the witnesses called by Sheridan were members of Solidarity
''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti ...
, his own party, including Hugh Kerr
Hugh Kerr (born 9 July 1944) is a Scottish politician and a former lecturer in social policy at the Polytechnic of North London. He was elected a Labour Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in June 1994 to represent the euro-constitue ...
, Rosemary Byrne
Rosemary Byrne (born 3 March 1948, Irvine, North Ayrshire) is a Scottish politician who served as co-convenor of Solidarity from 2006 to 2019.
Byrne was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South of Scotland region from 2003 ...
and Mike Gonzalez. He also called Andy Coulson
Andrew Edward Coulson (born 21 January 1968) is an English journalist and political strategist.
Coulson was the editor of the ''News of the World'' from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's repo ...
, Downing Street director of communications and former ''News of the World'' editor, who denied that he had any knowledge of phone hacking at the ''News of the World'', or that he knew Glenn Mulcaire
Glenn Michael Mulcaire (born 8 September 1970) is an English private investigator and former non-league footballer. He was closely involved in the News International phone hacking scandal, and was imprisoned for six months in 2007 for his role ...
, the private detective at the centre of controversy. Tom Watson had briefed Sheridan's team about alleged phone hacking a few days earlier.[
Four witnesses who were present at the crucial SSP executive meeting of 9 November 2004 claimed that Sheridan did ''not'' admit to visiting a sex club at the meeting.
On 17 December the defence case completed. The prosecution then dropped the last remaining charge against Gail Sheridan, who was acquitted by the judge. Later that day her solicitor made a statement on her behalf outside the court thanking her legal team.
]
Summations
Alex Prentice gave his closing speech on 20 December. Sheridan gave his closing speech on 21–22 December, Lord Bracadale gave his summing-up, the jury then retired to consider their verdict and were later sent home for the night.
Verdict
On 23 December the jury found Sheridan guilty of five of the six outstanding charges of perjury, by majority verdict. The only one where they acquitted him was lying about his alleged affair with Anvar Khan, they also deleted the mention of lying about having sex with Katrine Trolle in his home. He was bailed pending background reports.
On 26 January he was sentenced to three years in prison. On both days Gail Sheridan made a statement outside the court saying that she was standing by her husband.
Sheridan was released on license on 30 January 2012, having served just over one year of his sentence.
Aftermath
After the trial, the Crown Office issued a statement saying that no further action would be taken against six other people charged with perjury in relation to the civil trial, five of whom were Sheridan's associates (see above).
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland.
It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English Regions, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Northern Irela ...
broadcast a radio drama based on the trial, with Gavin Mitchell as Tommy Sheridan, Karen Dunbar
Karen Dunbar (born 1 April 1971) is a Scottish comedian, actress and writer. She first appeared on television on the BBC Scotland sketch comedy series ''Chewin' the Fat'' (1999–2002), and was subsequently given her own show by the channel titl ...
as Gail, and Julie Wilson Nimmo
Julie Wilson Nimmo is a Scottish actress and dancer. She is known for portraying the roles of Miss Hoolie in the BBC Children's series ''Balamory'', Mrs Sawdust in CBeebies show 'Olga Da Polga' and DC Megan Squire in the BBC Scottish televisio ...
as Katrine Trolle.
On 24 December 2010, Tommy Sheridan lodged an intimation of intention to appeal against his conviction. In June 2011, leave to appeal was refused by a single judge at the first sift. This decision was appealed to a bench of three judges. In August 2011, leave to appeal was refused at the second sift
In the light of the News of the World phone hacking affair
The News International phone hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct ''News of the World'' and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police b ...
, the Crown Office instructed the Strathclyde Police to reassess the evidence. However Paul McBride stated that he did not believe that this affair had any bearing on Sheridan's conviction.
A complaint submitted to Strathclyde Police in July 2011 led to Operation Rubicon
Operation Rubicon (German: ''Operation Rubikon''), until the late 1980s called Operation Thesaurus, was a secret operation by the West German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), lasting from 1970 to ...
, a major investigation involving 50 officers investigating allegations of phone hacking, breach of data protection and perjury by News of the World.
Alex Prentice
Alex Prentice KC is a leading Scottish lawyer.
He has held senior posts at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the body which normally carries out prosecutions in Scotland. He became an assistant Principal Advocate Depute in 2009, a ...
has continued his legal career, twice winning a murder conviction without a body in 2012. Paul McBride died suddenly in early 2012. A few people involved in the case were candidates in the 2012 Glasgow City Council election
Elections to Glasgow City Council were held on 3 May 2012, the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. The election was the second using 21 new wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, each wa ...
: Gail Sheridan, and Frances Curran
Frances Curran (born 21 May 1961) is a former co-chair of the Scottish Socialist Party. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West of Scotland region from 2003 to 2007.
Political career
A former member of the Labour Part ...
and Joyce Drummond who were witnesses.
There have since been a few books written on the case: ''Downfall'' by Alan McCombes, ''Tommy Sheridan: From Hero to Zero? A Political Biography'' by Gregor Gall
Gregor Gall (born 1967) is a British left-wing academic and writer, who has taught at several British universities.
Career
He was professor of industrial relations at the University of Bradford and before then professors of industrial relatio ...
, and ''A Parcel of Rogues'' by Jim Monaghan.
On 30 May 2012 Andy Coulson was charged with perjury in relation to this case. In August 2012 Douglas Wight was charged with various offences in relation to the case, and Bob Bird was charged with various offences in relation to the earlier civil case. On 3 June 2015, Coulson was acquitted after the case against him was dismissed by a judge. The cases against Wight and Bird were also dropped without coming to trial.
A play about the case, ''I, Tommy'', has had three runs in Scotland, the third with Rosie Kane
Rosemary "Rosie" Kane (née McGarvey) (born on 5 June 1961 in Glasgow) is a Scottish Socialist Party politician. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow Region from 2003 to 2007.
Political history
Introduction to poli ...
playing herself.
In 2015 the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, established by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (as amended by the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1 ...
declined to refer the case to the High Court.
Notes
References
External links
Sunday Herald summary of case
Solidarity statement on conviction
2004 publication with statements from all currents in the SSP at the time
short extract from the George McNeilage video
The Truth about Tommy Sheridan
from Scottish Socialist Youth
article
about the case from the ''Weekly Worker''
guide
to the key witnesses from the BBC
The women who refused to lie for Tommy
We were Tommy Sheridan's loyal comrades, not his harem
Sheridan's speech before sentencing
Sentencing statement by the judge
Detailed day-by-day coverage of the trial by Jim Doleman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheridan
High Court of Justiciary cases
2010 in Scotland
Scottish Socialist Party
Political sex scandals in the United Kingdom
News of the World
Trials of political people
Perjury
2010 in case law
2010 in British law