Thursday, January 6, 2011

Tommy Sheridan taking legal action against News of the World/Metropolitan Police

The Guardian is reporting.

"The former Scottish socialist leader Tommy Sheridan is taking legal action against News International and Scotland Yard after his personal details emerged as part of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. The disgraced former MSP has instructed his lawyers to pursue the NoW and the convicted private investigator Glenn Mulcaire for breach ofprivacy after details about his home address and mobile phone were found in two of Mulcaire's notebooks in a police raid four years ago."

The full article can be found Here

Update

The BBC has an article with further details and a quote from Aamer Anwar 

"Mr Sheridan wants to know who instructed the hacking, why wasn't there a full and transparent investigation by the Metropolitan police and why wasn't he informed. It wasn't just one occasion: it's on two separate occasions."


"This won't be an action for damages; it's an action to find out what went on.
"It is in the public interest to find out what's going on."

16 comments:

Judi said...

And whom should we consider the lucky recipient of these bountiful instructions?

Will this too be a temporary appointment in the Sheridan tradition or one stretching beyond the realms of the imagination, perhaps even to the conclusion of proceedings to ensue?

James, had you any idea that you had stumbled on a life's work?

Get that Paypal button back up quick pal!

knock knock said...

interesting reading. worth the chase for a few quid but the stumbling block is mr s will have to prove they actually hacked his phone. dates, times and contents of the message. then say there was some sort of loss interms of value to the contents of the message or some defamation with the information the message contained.

having a book full of tel numbers and addresses doesnt mean what he is aledging happened.

i dont think the police are in the wrong either probably mr mcclure had a phone book in his house. should the police have contacted everyone in the phonebook to say their phone might have been hacked???

i think it will be very hard to prove but it should get him out of jail for the case.

old lord brackadale im sure not be influenced by this latest development but if he was i dont think it will decrease the term imposed. it would have made more sense to do this after sentencing.

Observer said...

One wonders if Mr Coulson's evidence at the Sheridan trial may become the subject of perjury proceedings?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/13/phone-hacking-coogan-tarrant

Anonymous said...

One doubts it will, Observer.

Peter said...

Knock Knock,

The NOTW settled with Max Clifford in the claim made against it (and Mulcaire) for a million pounds without him "proving" anything.

The implication being that the last thing that the NOTW want is for its executives and Mulcaire to take the stand under oath in a civil trial and for the pre-trial disclosure to take place.

Indeed Mulcaire and Goodman pleaded guilty in the criminal trials.

This effectively prevented disclosoure at trial and prevented testimony.

Afterwards as in the Guardian and this trial they were given contracts with the NOTW.

The NOTW will either have to settle the claims of Sheridan and the others or engage disclosure in the pre-trial disclosure stage and risk going to trial.

Lets see. Tommy may well decide to reject any settlement.

Observer said...

Anonymous @8:05

Perhaps. But you can bet that Steve Coogan and George Galloway's representatives will be analyzing what Coulson said at the Sheridan trial.

knock knock said...

Peter.....

Two points

First..... I'm happy to see that its about money. Could it just be a trading exercise ie notw take their 200k back and don't go for costs, leaving the matrimonial home intact. Also Clifford didn't go for the met. It would have made more sense to make this move prior to the criminal case and muddy the waters even more before the crown kicked it off in Oct.

Second......

peter you never replied to this

Peter...... I really feel for you. Your unwavering loyalty to Mr s. I think if even if Mr s decided to say it was him on the tape and it was Cupids number and address in his diary you would still believe it wasn't him. You need to start accepting the facts and evidence. The difference between the 2 is what was led and what wasn't allowed to be led.

Do you honestly believe that one of her majestys advocates would use this video tape after it was checked by an expert and found not to be him. The results of the crown analysis would have been given to the defence. Why didn't they just get their own expert to dispute the tape. It was being led so they could have discredited it with a voice expert saying it isn't him. You need to accept it is Mr s on the tape because if it wasn't the defence would have led an expert and not rely on des mclean. Why try go to the trouble of getting an impersonator yet not get an expert?

Peter I'm sorry to spoil it for you and your supporters but there's no getting away from it. He's guilty.

sucker said...

Hi James , what happened to my pringles comment?

Sheridan Trial said...

Hello Sucker

Sorry breached comment policy. If you want to discuss it further feel free to email me.

Best Regards

James

Bunc said...

It will be interesting to see what comes of this action against the NOTW. Perhaps this will all come back and bite Coulson - oh what a shame that would be eh?

Equally I think it doesn't have much relevance to Sheridan's guilt in the perjury case - but he may be able to comfort himself by taking the NOTW down with him.

Neutral Observer said...

I might be wrong, but I think when AA says it's not an action for damages, he means TS will not be seeking money. "Damages" is a legal term in Scotland for compensation.

Watcher 1 said...

Oh dear
Oh dear...
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Tommy-Sheridan-finds-new-witnesses.6682497.jp

ID said...

One relevant point re: voice identification

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/12/voice_prints.html

knock knock said...

Voiceprints Your voice is unique because of the shape of your vocal cavities and the way you move your mouth when you speak. To enroll in a voiceprint system, you either say the exact words or phrases that it requires, or you give an extended sample of your speech so that the computer can identify you no matter which words you say. When people think of voiceprints, they often think of the wave pattern they would see on an oscilloscope. But the data used in a voiceprint is a sound spectrogram, not a wave form. A spectrogram is basically a graph that shows a sound's frequency on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis. Different speech sounds create different shapes within the graph. Spectrograms also use colors or shades of grey to represent the acoustical qualities of sound. This tutorial has a lot more information on spectrograms and how to read them. Photo court Speaker recognition to represen Some companies use voiceprint recognition so that people can gain access to information or give authorization without being physically present. Instead of stepping up to an iris scanner or hand geometry reader, someone can give authorization by making a phone call. Unfortunately, people can bypass some systems, particularly those that work by phone, with a simple recording of an authorized person's password. That's why some systems use several randomly-chosen voice passwords or use general voiceprints instead of prints for specific words. Others use technology that detects the artifacts created in recording and playback. Other systems are more difficult to bypass. We'll look at some of those next. If others want to.....

Mike said...

Scraping the barrel, surely.

Sheridan, in cross-examining Felicity Garvie, made great play of how his phone number was known to lots of people.

Now his privacy is breached because somebody had his phone number?

Anonymous said...

Will this guy never learn. How much legal aid will that cost?