We are living in interesting times, former SSP leader Tommy Sheridan is set to get a double damages award of £400,000 from his civil court case a decade ago against the News of the World, could Scotland be possibly the world centre for miracles?

Dear All

When Tommy Sheridan won his civil case for defamation against the News of the World, he walked out of the court into a media scrum, it was like a new year celebration as he punched his fist in the air and declared victory.

Sheridan had used his skills as an orator to convince people that he had been wronged, the News of the World was going through a bad time as allegations of phone hacking engulfed it; the paper was closed down.

I have to say as I did during the time I blogged about this case, a real shame, innocent people lost their jobs as the Murdock Empire was in full fire fighting mode. And the Westminster Labour crowd was out to start rein in Murdock’s power.

A criminal case followed the civil case, in that Tommy Sheridan was unsuccessful, he was found guilty and at the time of that case, I blogged he needed a trial lawyer, but he elected to defend himself.

And he lost rather badly.

Now in the cold light of day in 2016, Tommy Sheridan could receive around double his original £200,000 damages award against the News of the World.

The reason for the extra cash is that between now and then there has been a decade of interest charges.

About 8% a year!

What can you say about this other than wow!

If Sheridan pockets an award of £400,000, it’s a good payday for him and a disaster for the Murdoch Empire, but as they say stranger things have happen at sea!

So, why is Sheridan getting a windfall after doing time in the pokey, well it seems that three judges refused to strike down his defamation win of 2006.

The opinion of the judges was that the jury could have fairly decided that Sheridan was defamed even if they did not believe he was squeaky clean.

The judgment said:

“The verdict of the jury did not necessarily award the pursuer a badge of total credibility, total reliability, or total fidelity.”

I would imagine that Tommy Sheridan will enjoy his £400,000 and also enjoy this victory which may have shocked some people as it came out of the blue.

So, what about his criminal conviction?

Well at present, that still stands and there is no sign of an appeal being successful on that front just yet.

Isn’t law an amazing thing?

I think so, there seems right up there will walking on water and other miracles, so what must the Murdoch Empire be thinking now, I would hazard a guess at, ‘oh for f*cksake’ said loudly while hurling a chair out a plate glass window several stories up!

Hilarious, I think I will ask a Sheriff I know if she can explain this to me on a technical level as I have an interest in law.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University