The second witness to appear in court this morning was Ruth Adamson who also testified to an alleged visit to her flat by Tommy Sheridan in October 2004. Alex Prentice QC, for the crown, first established with the witness that she had shared a house in Dundee with Katrine Trolle at that date and that they were work colleagues as well as friends.
Mr Prentice then asked the witness if she had a mobile phone that she shared use of with Katrine Trolle.,which she confirmed she did. He then asked if she had ever had a call on this phone from Tommy Sheridan, which she had, and if Mr Sheridan had asked to speak to Ms Trolle, to which the witness responded he had. She said Mr Sheridan had called a "handful of times" between 2002 and 2004.
She was then asked if she was in a relationship with Ralph Barret in 2004, which the witness confirmed she was and then asked if she had ever met Mr Sheridan. Ms Adamson stated to the court that in 2004 Tommy Sheridan had came to her house in Dundee in the company of Katrine Trolle. She told the court that Katrine Trolle introduced Mr Sheridan to Mr Barret and herself and that they had "shook hands" and had "a little chit chat." Ms Adamson then told the court that after a brief time Mr Sheridan and Ms Trolle had gone upstairs (for Mr Barret's account of the same event see the report Here ) She then told the court that she and Mr Barret had not seen Mr Sheridan again that night or the next morning when they had left together.
Finally the witness was asked if she had ever been offered money for her story, to which she said she had not, and of she had told the truth, which she said she had. With that Mr Prentice sat down and Tommy Sheridan left the dock to begin his cross-examination.
Mr Sheridan began his questioning by asking the witness if Ms Trolle was active in the Scottish Socialist Party, which she said she was and put to her that there would be nothing "suspicious" about the convener of a party phoning up a party activist, to which the witness agreed. Mr Sheridan then showed the court his diary for 2004, and drew Ms Adamson's attention for the date October 11. He then highlighted an entry which said "7.30 to 9pm anti war meeting Aberdeen." and showed the witness her statement to the police where she had put the time of Mr Sheridan's visit to her home at between 7pm and 8pm. Mr Sheridan then asked the witness how long it would take to travel from Aberdeen to Dundee which she replied "about an hour. He asked the witness to accept that even if he had transport he could not have arrived at the house before 10pm. Ms Adamson agreed that this was "possible."
Mr Sheridan then put it to the witness that she had testified in 2006 and today "to support her friend Katrine Trolle" Ms Adamson responded that she remembered the incident. With that Mr Sheridan returned to the dock and as the Advocate Depute had no re-examination the witness was excused.
The case continues.
23 comments:
I find it funny that TS has produced his diaries after the Advocate produced the train tickets, was this in response or did TS intend to anyway?
He said she said on the sea shore! Brilliant stuff
Dundee to Aberdeen is 60 miles, so say round about an hour drive.
"I find it funny that TS has produced his diaries after the Advocate produced the train tickets, was this in response or did TS intend to anyway?"... yeah, looks like some fancy footwork on behalf of the Advocate Depute. Slipping the train tickets in as some sort of inconvertible proof that Tommy has visited travelled from Glasgow to Aberdeen as if the Crown NEEDED TO PROVE IT, and here we have Tommy casually mentioning his visit to Aberdeen. ANd since the Advocate Depute knows what is is TSs diaries... pretty cunning,e h...?
Four train tickets but the witness only read out too. Who are these people?
They were returns; you get four individual tickets.
today's evidence is tricky to refute as there's no clear reason why the witnesses would be lying. it has to be said that if the meeting went on until 9 then that doesnt mean Tommy would have stayed until 9- i have been at lots of public meetings (includig one with tommy) where the speaker had to leave early for transport. that's not to say that this is what he did, but he will need a better explanation i think.
good point, former ssp, with public meetings I've always found that speakers turn up shortly before their speech and leave shortly after. that's why people are drawn to events in the first place - the speakers,
it's like if you hire a celeb for an event you have to twist their arm to mingle with the crowd for a few minutes after, sign a few autographs, you have to re-negotiate the contract, they can't wait to be gone - and the audience all think that they want to be there - as if. so if an event is from x to y it's not as if the speakers/celebs are necessarily going to be there from x to y.
Having seen Tommy once (yeeeears ago) at a public meeting held by the SSP, he turned up really rather late and left after his speech, and I heard some light ripping going on to the effect that this was his normal practice, as it were.
Stay with me on this one!.
Glasgow to Aberdeen, RETURN Tickets.
Then he went Aberdeen to Dundee by car?.
He would have had to go back to Aberdeen to go back to Glasgow. Would it not have been easier going Dundee to Glasgow?.
How do they know ts spent the night there?, they only saw him for a short time?, so he could have gone at anytime they would not have known?.
"Having seen Tommy once (yeeeears ago) at a public meeting held by the SSP, he turned up really rather late and left after his speech, and I heard some light ripping going on to the effect that this was his normal practice, as it were."
I saw him at a meeting in Haddington. He turned up on time and was still talking to people over half an hour AFTER the meeting ended.
But it is on expenses, so what does it matter. And there is little difference between the price of single and return tickets.
spot on shug, speakers and celebrities and usually busy/important people with better things to do than hang around meetings/garden fairs. in and out as quick as possible.
When Tommy came to a meeting he did it not just to ‘speak’ but went there to build a party and promote his belief in Socialism and his party - hence the rise of the SSP at that time. When he came to the Highlands he would frequently do several meeting, stalls, several press conferences, all whilst continually answering his phone and giving statements to the press. The guy had not one moment to himself! He gave his all for what he believed in – he didn’t just nip in and out as a ‘speaker’.
Well, I saw him do just that, Anne. I'd imagine that if he made the effort to go to the highlands all the way from his home in Glasgow it made more sense to stay a while.
Why get return tickets. Points to ts telling the truth.
What I don`t understand is, they are having us believe that ts didn`t care who knew he was having an affair with KT?. You wouldn`t openly do it would you. Doesn`t make sense he would do as they are saying. Would you do this if you were having an affair?.
Were you actually at the meetings, Anne? a lot of the time is just a serious of photo-ops. politicians do this all the time, it gives you a false impression, just like a TV show where the presenters just turn up to give a short piece to camera, but anyone watching on the TV would think that they had been present all day.
You won't find Tony Benn lol or Alex Callinicos waiting around after they have given their speech/question answer session, that's for sure.
"Well, I saw him do just that, Anne. I'd imagine that if he made the effort to go to the highlands all the way from his home in Glasgow it made more sense to stay a while.", spot on, take a trip round the Highlands, see the sights of the Granite city and then go home on the train.
Would you do this if you were having an affair? - what about making the ralph guy jealous?
making the ralph guy jealous - this is the sort of thing flatmates do...
In Tommy's time as converor he came to the Highlands over 30 times from Stornoway to Shetland, Fort William to Elgin, Alness to Inverness. During this political period he never stopped. He was all over the country and I saw him at many meetings as he helped build a party. No-one could accuse of him of being a 'celebrity speech' sort of politician. He working to promoting his belief and build the party he believed in at that time.
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