Dear All
Tommy Sheridan is a controversial figure; previously he was
a Holyrood MSP along with other members of the Scottish Socialist Party. At
that time some people referred to Holyrood as the 'rainbow Parliament'. In some
respects the addition of other people not belonging to the mainstream parties
was a good thing.
Then the bombshell of Sheridan being outed in News of the
World exploded, a sex story, which as everyone knows became high profile very
quickly. Sheridan
said that the story was wrong and decided to sue the newspaper.
Sheridan won the civil case; he left Court with a clenched
fist having beaten the Murdoch Empire.
It was great courtroom drama; Sheridan was awarded £200,000
in damages after winning his defamation case against the newspaper at the Court
of Session in Edinburgh.
£200,000 is pretty nice money if you can get it, he didn't
though.
The Murdoch Empire weren't happy as you can imagine, what
always surprised me was Tommy Sheridan's claim that the Murdoch Empire was
after him because he was a socialist.
Why would the News of the World care about him in Scotland ?
The World turned and Tommy Sheridan found himself back in
Court, this time charged with perjury. At that time, Sheridan decided to defend himself, a mistake
which I blogged about as that case proceeded.
Tommy Sheridan needed a trial lawyer.
When I spoke to the failed SNP Candidate Chris Stephens, he
said he thought Sheridan
would get off. How he arrived at that outcome was one of life's mysteries to
me, Sheridan was
cooked the moment he stepped foot in Court.
George Laird, on the other hand took a different view, the
more I read about it, the worse things seemed to get for Sheridan , he was getting found guilty, and
the jury agree with me.
Having been found guilty, he was jailed for 3 years, HMP
Barlinnie, the Queen reserves rooms there for guests, subsequently freed from free
board and lodgings, he left prison after serving just over a year, his
reputation and political career was over.
Fast forward to 2014, Tommy Sheridan is to launch a new bid
to overturn his perjury conviction; he is taking his case to the Scottish
Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) in a fresh attempt to clear his name.
If you happened to looked at the daily reports of the trial, you would think
that in order to win, he would need a miracle.
Not liking the verdict in my opinion is not grounds for
appeal, you might as well say, the verdict was unsafe because the parking bays
near the court weren't properly signed well enough or he got convicted because
it was really cloudy that day and the jury members might have suffered from the
effects of a lack of sunlight.
Given the vast number of witnesses from different sources, a
confession in front of a large group of people and a video tape, my interest
now in this case is; what is the “story”, Sheridan says he is his innocent.
In a previous attempt at an appeal, it was said he had been
denied a fair trial because of the amount of publicity generated before it got
under way. That appeal was thrown out on its arse as "not arguable"
by senior judges.
The latest attempt centres allegedly around that he suffered
a miscarriage of justice.
Tommy Sheridan would then get a regular appeal.
"I am supremely confident my 2010 conviction will be
quashed. It was unsafe and unsavoury. We now have the proof required to expose
the extent of the fit-up I was subjected to. The truth will out."
If he says he was 'fitted up', then Police Scotland would
have to pay a great many people a visit and possibly charge them with perjury
if they lied. I wonder if Sheridan's bid is based on some technical procedural
mistake by the Crown, I find it hard to believe given the different social
groups involved that somehow they all got together to form a widespread
criminal conspiracy.
Is it credible that his SSP colleagues were in bed with the
Murdoch Empire?
As to the video tape which was presented in evidence, I find
it hard to believe that Tommy Sheridan's pal, George McNeilage had the
technical expertise required to doctor the tape or he had the ability to organise
and find someone to impersonate Sheridan's voice. George McNeilage isn't one of
life's great thinkers.
Tommy Sheridan is currently campaigning for Scottish
independence; he recently shared a platform with SNP MSP Christina McKelvie at
a Yes Hamilton event. The senior SNP figure of John Swinney doesn't think that Sheridan should be
associated with the independence campaign and has been pretty vocal about it.
Tommy Sheridan's enemies in the SSP who climbed into bed
with the Nationalists can't be too happy either at Sheridan 's comeback. Colin Fox sits on the
Yes Scotland board, during the Sheridan
trial he was pretty outspoken against his former colleague. No love lost there
among 'brothers' and 'comrades' it seems.
Two questions, should Sheridan
get an appeal and should Sheridan
be allowed to take part in the Scottish independence campaign.
On the issue of the first, if he has real evidence and not
just a story which sounds like it might be plausible then yes, he should get
treated like another other person by the SCCRC.
And if they feel he has a case, then an appeal should be
granted on evidence.
If on the other hand it is a load of babbling nonsense, then
it should be chucked in the bin. I am also mindful of the reason for his
previous appeal being rejected on the grounds of being "not arguable"
by senior judges. Is it likely he has stumbled on new evidence, one point I
made a while ago, re phone hacking by the News of the World, this isn't grounds
to quash Sheridan 's
conviction. It is immaterial to the conviction because it doesn't affect the
evidence.
Claiming they are bad people too isn't a defence; that just
means they should be locked up as well.
On the second issue, should Tommy Sheridan be allowed to
campaign, this becomes a question of do you believe in democracy, if you do,
then the answer is yes, he was put in prison and paid his debt to society,
personally think I wrote at the time of his conviction that community service
should have been the sentence rather than imprisonment.
Tommy Sheridan is trying to rebuild his credibility with the
public, I doubt that will be successful, his political career is utter ruined,
his breakaway party called Solidarity is highly unsuccessful. Not only did he
kill Solidarity as a political force, he managed to wipe out the SSP who won
the 'war' but lost the peace.
In the Govan by-election where I stood as a candidate,
Solidarity scored 28 votes; I spoke to them as I did with most of the
candidates. They seemed really nice people and happy with their result, out of
14 candidates, they came 12th.
Given the amount of lying, deception and misleading statements
already made in the Scottish independence campaign by the Nationalists and
their allies, does anyone really think Tommy Sheridan taints the Yes campaign?
As long as he abides by the rules and laws which are now in
force regarding the referendum I can see no harm in his participation. People
should make up their own mind whether they wish to choose to listen to
him.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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