Timeline: Sheridan trial week four
- Published
OCTOBER 25-29
Former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan, 46, is on trial accused of perjury.
His wife Gail, 46, also faced perjury charges which have now been dropped.
It is claimed Mr Sheridan lied in court so that he could successfully sue the News of the World in 2006.
The former MSP won £200,000 in damages after the newspaper printed allegations about his private life, claiming that he was an adulterer who had visited a swingers club.
Following a police investigation, Mr Sheridan was charged with perjury. He denies the allegations.
Here, is a summary of the fourth week of evidence
DAY FOURTEEN
A childhood friend of Tommy Sheridan has told a court that he went to a club in Manchester with the former MSP.
Gary Clark said he remembered the club showing pornography on TV screens. The jury earlier heard allegations that Mr Sheridan attended a swingers club.
Mr Clark told the High Court in Glasgow he got to know Mr Sheridan when they were growing up in the city's Pollok area.
The former footballer was asked by prosecutor Alex Prentice if he had ever met Katrine Trolle - a previous witness who claims to have had an affair with Mr Sheridan.
Mr Clark said he had met her while travelling in his car with Mr Sheridan, Andy McFarlane and Anvar Khan - a journalist who claimed she went to a swingers club with an MSP.
Mr Sheridan suggested the witness had been "going through hell" in his life in September 2002 and had reached an abyss of drink, drugs and depression.
He asked Mr Clark: "Is it not the case that your memory is simply not reliable?" Mr Clark said: "Yes, definitely."
DAY FIFTEEN
A former Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) colleague has told a court he was "heartbroken" when Tommy Sheridan admitted to visiting a swingers club.
Richard Venton said Mr Sheridan admitted at an SSP meeting in 2004 that he had visited the club in Manchester.
Mr Venton, 57, said he was "gobsmacked" by the admission which he described as "mind-boggling recklessness".
During his cross-examination Mr Sheridan, who is defending himself, suggested Mr Venton was part of "a plot to undermine me politically", and accused him of lying in his evidence.
DAY SIXTEEN
A former MSP has told a perjury trial that she asked Tommy Sheridan to resign the day after she claims he admitted visiting a swingers club.
Frances Curran, 49, told the High Court in Glasgow that she told Mr Sheridan she had "expected more honesty and principle" from him.
Ms Curran became the 13th witness to tell Mr Sheridan's perjury trial that she heard him admit to visiting a swingers club during an emergency SSP meeting on 9 November 2004.
The following day, she said she met Mr Sheridan and fellow SSP MSP Colin Fox for tea and biscuits in an Edinburgh hotel and asked him to resign.
Mr Sheridan showed Ms Curran the transcript of her appearance before the Court of Session in Edinburgh in 2006 in which she was asked about the whereabouts of the minutes of the meeting of 9 November 2004.
She had told the court then that she had given the minutes to Alan McCombes, but Mr Sheridan suggested she had lied then, saying that following the meeting the minutes were in fact given to Allan Green.
DAY SEVENTEEN
A former News of the World columnist has told the Tommy Sheridan perjury trial that she had sex with the former MSP while he was married.
Anvar Khan also told the High Court in Glasgow she went with Mr Sheridan and three other people to a swingers' club in Manchester in the autumn of 2002.
Freelance journalist Ms Khan, 43, told the court that she first met Mr Sheridan in the course of her work around 1992 and went on to have sex with him on several occasions.
Under cross-examination from Mr Sheridan, who is representing himself, Ms Khan was asked if she had benefited from the allegations about him appearing in the press.
She replied: "I think it would be the opposite. I have been box-office poison. I certainly have not had much work in Scotland."
Ms Khan told the court she had a meeting with the editor of the Scottish News of the World, Bob Bird, in which she said she felt "blackmailed" into co-operating with the newspaper's lawyers in Mr Sheridan's defamation action.
DAY EIGHTEEN
A former News of the World columnist has told a court she did not try to make money from claims she had a "kinky fling" with a married MSP.
Anvar Khan told the Tommy Sheridan perjury trial at the High Court in Glasgow that she never benefited from the story or received any payment.
In previous evidence, Ms Khan told the court she had sex with the former MSP on several occasions and visited Cupid's swingers' club in Manchester with him in 2002.
During his cross-examination of Ms Khan, Mr Sheridan, who is representing himself, accused her of giving "untrue" evidence in court over claims she had a "kinky fling" with a married politician.