HM Advocate v. Sheridan and Sheridan
| HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan | |
|---|---|
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| Court | High Court of Justiciary |
| Full case name | Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan |
| Decided | 23 December 2010 |
| Case history | |
| Related action(s) | Sheridan v News Group Newspapers |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | Lord Bracadale |
Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan was the 2010 criminal prosecution of Tommy Sheridan, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament and his wife Gail Sheridan for perjury in relation to the earlier civil case Sheridan v News Group Newspapers. Tommy Sheridan was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, whereas Gail was acquitted.
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 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.
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 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.
In 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.
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