The Last Post

Photo Duncan Brown

As it is now coming up to ten days since the end of the trial of Her Majesties Advocate vs Thomas Sheridan we have decided to bring the Sheridan Trial blog to an end. We will leave it online as an archive but, unless something dramatic happens, we will not be producing any further updates. We will leave comments open over the weekend to allow people to make their final contributions and then shut that down on Monday.


As people will doubtless be aware the first accused, Tommy Sheridan was found guilty of five charges of perjury and sentenced to three years imprisonment. While this is not the result they wanted Mr Sheridan's legal team would argue that the fact that fourteen of the original nineteen charges were either dropped or not found proven by the jury, shows that they conducted an effective defence. Mr Sheridan's lawyer Aamer Aanwar has already announced that he will be lodging an appeal. A defence campaign has been launched for Mr Sheridan, they have a website Here Mr Sheridan also has a blog which has an account of his first week in prison


The second accused Gail Sheridan was acquitted on all charges. Despite speculation to the contrary Mrs Sheridan has announced that she will not be seeking a nomination as a candidate in the Scottish elections. There have reports that she may stand for Glasgow city council in the Craigton ward.


A number of witnesses in the case will however be standing in the Scottish elections this May.  Frances Curran, Colin Fox and Kevin McVey have already been announced as candidates for the Scottish Socialist Party.  It is also expected that a number of defence witnesses will be nominated by Solidarity Scotland, however no formal announcement has yet been made on this.


Andrew Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, has resigned his post as Director of Communications at 10 Downing Street. Some reports have cited his appearance as a witness at the Sheridan Trial as a factor in his decision to quit.  The story around "phone hacking" by people associated with the News of the World has continued to develop since the case ended. The Metropolitan Police have announced that they have begun a new investigation into the allegations.


On a personal note I'd like to thank everyone who helped make this blog possible. The people at court who made sure I got in to observe proceedings every day and the staff at Glasgow High court for their assistance and the two legal teams.  I'd also like to mention some of the journalists who helped me out and gave me advice on how to stay within the law while reporting, in no particular order I'd like to thank Severin Carrel Alison Campsie, Bernard Ponsonby, Raymond Buchanan, Yana Thandrayen, Catriona Renton, Audrey Gillan, Alan Taylor and  Mark Daly and many others. Also I'd like to recommended the web sites of my unofficial legal advisors, Love and Garbage and Lallands Peat Worrier 


I'd also like to congratulate  "Whatsy" for their work, without that the site would not have managed to cover as much as it did. 


Finally, after some thought I've decided not to accept donations for the site. I started this blog partly to see if it was possible to "blog a trial"and partly because  it might be useful for the Scottish Left to  have as an objective as possible account of events and testimony at the trial. Therefore it seems wrong to solicit money for this endevour. Some commentators have asked if we could nominate a charity, I'd suggest people could do worse than donate to Govan Law Centre 


Thanks again to everyone


James


Update Monday 7 February


Comments are now closed. We can still be reached by email at sheridantrial@gmail.com

Andy Coulson Leaves Downing Street Job

Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

The Guardian is reporting that Andrew Coulson, editor of the News of the World from 2003 until 2007 and a witness in the trial of Tommy and Gail Sheridan, has ended his employment as the Prime Ministers Director of Communications. They are also reporting that he will not receive any severance pay  as "is in line with the standard contract for special advisers"


The full story is Here

"A revelation that gives hope to Tommy Sheridan"

Bob Bird, Scottish Editor of the News of the World

The Independent has a Piece today, written by Cahal Milmo and Martin Hickman, on the news we linked to yesterday that the News of the World had recovered emails that the court in the Sheridan trial was told by Bob Bird had been "lost." (see Here for our report on that section of Mr Bird's testimony)  The article states; "News International now says Mr Bird unintentionally misled the court, but insists that all the emails sought by the defence were disclosed to it either by the newspaper or the police. Sheridan's legal team suspects that more information should have been disclosed, and plans to launch an appeal in the hope of springing Sheridan from Barlinnie jail, where he has begun a three-Year Jail term"

News International finds 'lost' emails

The Indpendent is Reporting "A "lost" hoard of emails sent by senior executives in Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire at the height of the phone-hacking scandal has been found " The claim that emails had been lost was made by the News of the World's Scotland editor Bob Bird during the perjury trial of the former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan in November. Giving evidence on oath, he said that many emails sought by the defence had gone missing while being transferred to India " (our reports about Mr Bird's testimony on this  issue can be viewed Here and Here )


The piece continues

Sheridan solicitor: "newspaper hacked my phone messages"

The Scottish Herald is reporting this morning that Tommy Sheridan's lawyer Aamer Anwar is planning to make a complaint to the police tomorrow alleging that the the News Of The World tried to "hack" his mobile phone. The article states; "The solicitor, who represented Tommy Sheridan during his perjury trial, said he was contacted by Vodafone shortly before the court case began last year, warned that there had been an attempt to access his messages and told he should change his PIN number.

You can read the full article Here

Tommy Sheridan's Statement on his Imprisonment

This was posted on Tommy Sheridan's Blog yesterday:

Comrades,

By the time you read this I will be a guest of the Crown.  Despite a tremendous fight against the combined forces of the state and the Murdoch empire, we have lost this round.  But the fight isn’t over yet.

Though I have been in jail before, this time will be tougher because I will be separated from my family.  But my plight is nothing compared to the families blown apart and torn apart by the horrors of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I have friends whose husbands, sons and fathers have to go to fight wars in these places, some of them never return.  My family’s troubles do not compare to the loss these people face.
 

"The women who refused to lie for Tommy Sheridan"

Photograph by Murdo MacLeod

This morning The Guardian has published an article by Julie Bindel which contains quotes from Crown witnesses in the case,  Barbara Scott, Carolyn Leckie, Pam Currie, Catriona Grant Rosie Kane and Katrine Trolle.  You can read the full piece Here

Meanwhile the Scotsman is reporting that they have obtained  "a copy of a letter from the Defend Tommy Sheridan campaign to the First Minister, demanding a probe into the "role, conduct and performance" of Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini in pursuing the case against the left-winger." That article is Here

Finally the Scottish Sun Newspaper has ran three stories that appear to have been based on interviews with Tony Cumberbirch these can be found Here. Mr Cumberbirtches testimony at the trial can be viewed Here