Tommy Sheridan trial: From Becks to Bremner, there was an awful lot of name-dropping going on

Published on Thursday 23 December 2010 18:16

They have become celebrities in their own right, so it was perhaps not surprising that so many "names" should feature in the evidence at the Tommy and Gail Sheridan perjury trial.

Politicians could have been expected, given that politics was at the heart of the case, but such diverse figures as Annabel Goldie and Trotsky?

And the others to receive a mention were just as random, ranging from Scottish comic Des McLean to football's golden boy David Beckham, Irish crooner Daniel O'Donnell to all-American hero turned murder suspect OJ Simpson.

The name-dropping was just another example of how out of the ordinary the trial was, how different from cases heard day in, day out in courts throughout the land.

Yet, ironically, it had all been started by a Sunday tabloid story that was devoid of a name.

When it became known that Tommy Sheridan was the man involved, fellow SSP members gathered to discuss the way forward. They debated others in public life who had been involved in allegations of sex and other scandals and how those people had reacted. There was Hugh Grant, above, (put up your hands and admit it), David Beckham (ignore it) and Jeffrey Archer (deny it, sue, be convicted of perjury and end up in jail). Others mentioned included Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky and Jonathan Aitken.

A clash with former SSP ally Alan McCombes produced the accusation JK Rowling could not make up the kind of stories Sheridan was inventing. In his heyday, before the lurid truth became known, Sheridan had been the squeaky-clean Daniel O'Donnell, below, of Scottish politics, said Mr McCombes.

A secretly recorded video was vital evidence against Sheridan. It was made by George McNeilage, who had been Sheridan's best man and who had a bit part in a Ken Loach film, Sweet Sixteen.

Sheridan alleged Mr McCombes had written the script for the video, a charge he denied, adding that neither had he hired Rory Bremner to do Sheridan's voice. Mr McCombes said the only person he knew who imitated Sheridan was Des McLean but, as a friend, he would have been unlikely to conspire against Sheridan.

In the video, Sheridan said he had made a mistake but believed what had happened to him had been "a wee bit over the top cos I feel as if I've been f****** Julius Caesar."

The tape contained so much swearing, one person thought it sounded like Cartman, the foul-mouthed character from the cartoon South Park.

A witness described Sheridan's victory in his defamation case as "an OJ moment" - as unexpected as OJ Simpson's acquittal in his celebrated US murder trial - while a Sheridan sympathiser had talked of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin all having mistresses.