Andy Coulson, former director of communications for David Cameron is in Court in Scotland facing accusations of perjury at the Tommy Sheridan trial, never a dull moment in Scotland it seems, the Sheridan trial is the gift that keeps on giving

Dear All

When Tommy Sheridan won his case for defamation against the News of the World and was awarded £200,000, he must have thought he won the lottery. After all £200,000 is a good chunk of change to have in the skyrocket (pocket).

The News of the World weren’t best pleased when they lost that case, and you can understand why, Tommy Sheridan pulled off a victory which surprised many. The Judge at that Trial took an unusual decision in a civil case and said the matter should be investigated by the Police.

At the time, this was considered a highly unusual step, but it led to a change of events which would see Tommy Sheridan standing in the dock accused of perjury. After an emotional trial which saw Sheridan conduct his own defence, he was found guilty. Having been found guilty, he ended up in prison, and the Tommy Sheridan legend continued, far from accepting the verdict, he decided that he would appeal since leaving prison.

So far, all his attempts to get his sentence quashed have failed; the stumbling block to this is the evidence.

A by-product of the Tommy Sheridan case is that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson is accused of perjury. Coulson was previously working for David Cameron as director of communications. When things flared up, David Cameron said that he believed that people deserved a second chance, however, Coulson eventually left as director of communications. Now, he finds himself in Sunny Scotland standing in the dock to answer questions about the evidence he gave about phone hacking at the trial of Tommy Sheridan about five years ago.

Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun?

Coulson is accused of lying during the trial of Mr Sheridan in Glasgow in 2010. Given that lying is deemed serious by the Court, anyone who is found guilty tends to be punished rather hard, unless of course you have nothing to lose and then its free bed and board.

At the High Court in Edinburgh the jury heard an audio recording of the testimony Mr Coulson gave under oath after being cited as a witness in the trial almost five years ago. The first witness to appear before the tape was played Police Constable James Smith; he was doing Court duty on December 9 and 10, 2010. In effect, he was there to identify the Andy Coulson as the person who gave evidence. So, he is just pointing the finger and saying that’s him.

The real evidence is obviously the exchange between Tommy Sheridan who conducted his own defence after getting rid of his lawyer and Andy Coulson. The phone hacking scandal saw the end of the News of the World after about 168 years, it was a real campaigning newspaper which did a lot of good and exposed a lot of people doing bad things. Innocent staff lost their jobs and it was a really bad time for the Murdoch Empire, a lot of bad PR came their way.

Regardless how the trial of Andy Coulson turns out, this doesn’t affect the evidence that convicted Tommy Sheridan such as the confession to a room full of witnesses and also the video evidence of his confession.

Andy Coulson from Kent is pleading innocence, and the trial is expected to last about four weeks. Given that Sheridan cross examined Coulson, I would suspect he will be called to give evidence and answer questions.

Day out in Edinburgh for him and paid expenses!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University