Tommy Sheridan court victory ‘not undermined’ by his perjury conviction

News of the world - PA

Tommy Sheridan’s victory over the News of the World in a 2006 defamation case in which we was awarded £200,000 still stands, despite his subsequent conviction of perjury, judges have ruled.

The former Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) MSP took the now defunct newspaper to court over stories about his sex life.

However he was jailed in 2010 for lying under oath during the trial, which prompted an appeal by the paper’s owners.

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However judges at the Court of Session in Edinburgh have now refused the application by News Group Newspapers, ruling the 2006 jury had several “routes of reasoning” open to them.

“It was noted that the verdict of a civil jury should be treated with considerable respect. Current social standards were very much a jury question,” Lady Paton, Lord Drummond Young and Lord McGhie ruled.

“The jurors had heard and seen all the witnesses and the written evidence, and were the judges of the facts, deciding questions of credibility and reliability.”

This meant the reasoning of the jury “was not undermined by the perjury conviction,” they said.

The fallout from the trial resulted in Sheridan leaving the SSP to form the Solidarity party, neither of which won a seat in the Scottish Parliament again.