Guilty: Tommy Sheridan convicted of perjury
By politics.co.uk staff
Former Scottish Socialist party (SSP) leader Tommy Sheridan has been convicted of perjury, after what is believed to be the longest ever perjury trial in Scottish legal history.
The 11-week trial culminated in a six-and-a-half hour wait for the 46-year-old, as jurors deliberated on whether he had lied under oath during a 2006 libel case.
Allegations by the News of the World newspaper that he had visited a sex club in Manchester and committed to adultery were vigorously denied by Sheridan.
He was awarded £200,000 in compensation but found his reputation again under threat as the trial ending today began earlier this year.
In an emotional summing up, the Guardian newspaper quoted Sheridan as telling jurors: “I’m frightened of you. I’m frightened of you because you can do something that the NoW will never be able to do. You can separate me from my wife. You can make me break a promise to my daughter that I would spend Christmas with her.”
The News of the World is now expected to appeal against the jury’s verdict in the 2006 libel case.
