BRITAIN: It was hailed as one of the biggest defamation victories by a politician over the media in recent times. But yesterday Tommy Sheridan's triumph over the News of the World began to look short-lived after the newspaper claimed it had possession of a video in which he confesses to cheating on his wife and visiting swingers' clubs.
A member of the Scottish parliament and former leader of the Scottish Socialist Party won his £200,000 (€295,595) action against the Sunday tabloid in August after its claims that he was a swinger who liked spanking, took part in orgies, snorted cocaine and was an adulterer. He tearfully told a jury at Edinburgh's court of session that he had never been unfaithful to his wife, Gail, and, by a vote of seven to four, they believed him. But he could now face a police investigation into the newspaper's claims that he lied under oath.
The 40-minute tape - recorded secretly some time before the trial by George McNeilage, a former classmate and best man of Mr Sheridan - is to be handed to police this morning. The Crown Office, the public prosecutor in Scotland, is already examining transcripts from the defamation trial to decide if any witnesses should be charged with perjury.
On the tape, Mr Sheridan is alleged to have admitted visiting Cupids, a Manchester swingers' club, twice when challenged by a colleague. The voice says: "I said to him: 'Look, stupid, shouldnae have done it. Done it once before in '96 and went back in 2002. And cheap thrill but it's been done and that's it. At the time it was a great idea but I'm confident nothing will come back out of it'."
In court Mr Sheridan denied he had confessed to party colleagues at a meeting after the tabloid story appeared in November 2003, rebutting the evidence of 11 witnesses who claimed to have heard it. He said a minute of the meeting in which he is supposed to have confessed was "dodgy".
But on the tape, he allegedly admits making the confession, which he describes as a "humungous mistake".
The newspaper claims that on the tape Mr Sheridan then goes on to say that he wanted to face the story down but if presented with "incontrovertible evidence" such as "video tapes, CCTV, something of that character" then "I'll put my hand up and say 'I'm sorry' . . . and I'll walk away".
The News of the World, which is appealing against the defamation decision, took the tape to four voice-verification experts. One, Tom Owen, who analysed tapes of Osama bin Laden for the FBI, told the newspaper: "Everything points to this tape being a genuine recording of the individual Tommy Sheridan."
But Mr Sheridan dismissed the new claims. In a statement, he said: "Yet again the News of the World has printed lies and smears against me. They have a former friend whom I haven't spoken to for two years to tell lies about me. Mr McNeilage must be seriously hard up to lower himself to the gutter and co-operate against a former friend. A fictitious tape has been invented, concocted, and unleashed on a Scottish public sick to the back teeth of the News of the World's constant lies."
Mr McNeilage told the newspaper he had recorded the conversation on a video camera hidden beneath some tiles while he was decorating his Glasgow home. He did not release it at the time of the trial because he was convinced Mr Sheridan would lose. But when the jury decided in his favour and the politician went on to sell his story to the Scottish Daily Record newspaper, in which he denounced his former colleagues as "scabs" and "political collaborators", Mr McNeilage decided to make the tape public.
Last night Rosie Kane, an SSP member of the Scottish parliament who gave evidence against her former colleague, called for Mr Sheridan to resign from the parliament.
"I have listened to this tape and I know it is Tommy," she said. "What he says on that tape is what we said in our evidence in court - and he said it was us that were liars."