Tommy Sheridan (Copyright, Dominique Natanson 2007 - Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License)

Legal representatives for Tommy Sheridan, former MSP, appeared today (Monday 26 October 2009) in the High Court in Glasgow to ask for more time to prepare for his perjury trial, which had been set down for February 2010.

Both Tommy Sheridan and his wife Gail are accused of lying under oath during the Solidarity co-convener’s defamation action against the News of the World.  The jury in that case awarded Mr. Sheridan £200,000 in damages, but the newspaper have lodged an appeal which is on hold pending the outcome of the criminal trial.

My secret shame is that I really enjoyed the theatre of the defamation case, including one of the greatest tabloid headlines ever written to herald the news that Mr. Sheridan had decided to sack his lawyers: “Tommy drops his briefs” (Daily Record, 15 July 2006).

And it seems that the criminal trial promises even more of the same, with counsel estimating that it could last 60 days or more and involves 200 or more potential witnesses.  There was even a suggestion on this evening’s Reporting Scotland that there was some good old tabloid mobile phone bugging involved.

The case will now call again on 14 December 2009, when a new date for the trial will be fixed.

In the meantime, Tommy has the small matter of a by-election in Glasgow North East to contend with, where he is standing as a candidate.

Tags: barristers, courts, criminal, solicitors, Tommy Sheridan