The allegations of widespread phone-hacking by the News of the World yesterday moved north to Scotland with doubts being cast on the veracity of evidence given by one of the paper’s former editors during the trial of ex MSP, Tommy Sheridan.
In January, Sheridan was jailed for three years after being found guilty of lying during a legal case he took against the paper and its publishers, following claims made about his private life.
When Andy Coulson was giving evidence at Glasgow High Court, during the subsequent trial of Sheridan for perjury, he was Downing Street’s most senior spin doctor. And when he was asked by Sheridan whether the News of the World paid corrupt police officers, Coulson replied: “Not to my knowledge”, which now seems at odds with subsequent revelations.
And last night, on BBC Scotland’s Newsnight Scotland, Sheridan’s solicitor, Aamer Anwar, described trying to get emails from the News of the World, including Scotland, that may have been important to Sheridan’s defence, as like “getting blood out of a stone”.
