Jim Monaghan Cross Examination

After Mr Sheridan had completed his examination in chief of Mr Monaghan (see Here for our report) Mr Nicolson rose, for the first time in this trial, to cross-examine a witness. Mr Nicolson opened  by asking the witness whose idea it had been to leaflet the 27th September SSP event, the witness replied that it was his. Mr Nicolson then asked if it was true that Alison Kane had sent out a "three line whip" to members of the SSP to attend this event Mr Monaghan said he did not know of this had happened.

Mr Nicholson then asked Mr Monaghan "what other events at the people's festival did he "target" to leaflet  people to his Keir Hardie memorial. Mr Monaghan told the court that he had decided that the Friday night event would be the best chance to attract the people he thought would be interested in his meeting as it combined "politics and culture," and that a further attraction was the list of speakers. Asked why as a "part time poet"(which he had so described himself in his testimony)  he had not found the "poetry event" the next day "of interest" Mr Monaghan told the court that it was "expensive to come from Cumnock to Glasgow" and that he thought the poetry event would just be "poets and alcohol" and not many of the attendees would be interested in his meeting.

Mr Nicholson then asked if the witness had attended the part of the festival which had been held on the Sunday, which the Councel told the court was a "poetry event" Mr Monaghan stated that he had not been aware of that and added that there was no train on a Sunday and that he worked the night shift on Saturday night. Mr Nicholson then asked the witness if he had seen any other "SSP Executive members" at the Friday night meeting. Mr Monaghan said he had not, to which Counsel responded that there could have been but as he had not been a member of the party for very long Mr Sheridan was the only one he had recognised. 

Mr Nicholson then asked Mr Monaghan if he was "quite sure he had met Tommy Sheridan on the 27th September 2002" The witness replied he was because he had "checked it" Councel then asked what he had done after he had realised that he had seen Mr Sheridan on that date. The witness replied that he had called Tommy Sheridan who had told him to call his defence team. Mr Nicolson suggested to the witness that his story was "just a lie" which Mr Monaghan denied.

Mr Nicholson then moved on to Mr Monaghan's testimony that he had seen "SSP members" talking on the internet about the forthcoming release of the "McNeilage Tape" on the Saturday night before the tape was released and asked where he had seen this being discussed. Mr Monaghan told the court that it had been on various websites and said one in particular he remembered  was the Socialist Unity Blog. Mr Nicolson asked if the witness had informed Mr Sheridan of this, Mr Monaghan said he "could not recall" if he had.

Mr Nicholson then turned to the witnesses testimony about the "McNeilage tape" and asked the witness "what else confirmed it was not Mr Sheridan on the video apart from the "swearing  " Mr Monaghan replied that it was too "stop start" and too "jumpy" to be Mr Sheridan. Mr Nicolson asked the witness if he had ever seen the whole video to which the witness replied that he had only seen the "ten to fifteen minutes" that had appeared on the News of the World's website. Mr Nicolson concluded his cross examination by putting to the witness "the truth is you know it is Tommy Sheridan" to which Mr Monaghan responded "I don't think it is" adding that various people could do impressions of Mr Sheridan, such as Des McLean. 


Mr Sheridan then left the dock to re-examine the witness and asked if the Mr Monaghan knew that the event on Saturday, which Mr Nicolson had described as a "poetry event" had featured the "Dead's Poets's Society"  Mr Monaghan stated that he understood that this was a "folk band" Mr Sheridan ended by stating, "just because it has poets in the name does not mean it was a poetry event" and with that Mr Monaghan was allowed to leave the stand.