Comrades told Tommy Sheridan to resign over tea and biscuits, court hears

FORMER Scottish Socialist Party MSP told of the moment she asked Tommy Sheridan to step down as leader of the party.

Frances Curran said Sheridan was asked to resign after he admitted he had visited a swingers' club with a tabloid newspaper sex columnist.

Sheridan and his wife Gail, both 46, are accused of lying under oath during his successful defamation action against the News of the World in 2006.

Sheridan denies lying to the courts during the trial, which followed the newspaper's claims that he was an adulterer who visited swingers' clubs.

He was awarded 200,000 in damages after the newspaper printed the allegations.

Sheridan told an emergency meeting of the party's top brass that he intended to sue the newspaper after the allegations were published in November 2004, his perjury trial at the High Court in Glasgow has heard.

Ms Curran yesterday told the court that she heard him make the admissions during the emergency meeting at the party's Stanley Street headquarters on 9 November, 2004.

The following day, she said she met Sheridan and fellow SSP MSP Colin Fox for tea and biscuits in an Edinburgh hotel and asked him to resign.

She told the court: "The court action was the big problem for us. We couldn't get the party locked into lying in a court action. We were trying to decouple the party from the court action.

"He could stay as convener if he was prepared to either put his hand up or shut up."

She added that they told Sheridan "he was on his own" if he decided to sue the newspaper: "We said to Tommy, 'Are you going to take the court action?' He said, 'Yes'.

"I said, 'Well, we want your resignation.' He said, 'For f***'s sake, Frances. I would have expected more loyalty from you.'"

The court also heard that three Crown witnesses - Eddie Truman, Barbara Scott and Rosie Kane - appeared to have discussed the trial on social networking website Facebook in recent weeks.

Sheridan read the comments out during his cross-examination of Ms Scott, the former SSP minutes secretary. She was the first witness to give evidence to the trial, but was recalled after Sheridan parted company with his former QC.

Sheridan said a photograph of Katrine Trolle - who claimed to have had an affair with the politician and visited a swingers' club with him - was posted on Facebook by Mr Truman.

Underneath was said to have been written: "An extraordinary woman subjected to the most appalling abuse. Never forget, never forgive."

Ms Scott apparently responded on the site: "Trolle. It's nothing short of terrible what has happened to her."Sheridan asked Ms Scott: "Have you been making comments on Facebook?"

She replied: "I said a comment to Katrine telling her it was terrible what had happened to her."

Sheridan asked her: "You did discuss a specific witness then?"

Ms Scott said: "If that's called discussing a witness, then yes. I don't know what is wrong with writing those things."

The indictment against the Sheridans contains three charges in total. They deny the charges.

It is alleged Sheridan made false statements as a witness in the defamation action of 21 July, 2006. He also denies a charge of attempting to persuade a witness to commit perjury shortly before the 23-day trial got under way.

Gail Sheridan denies making false statements on 31 July, 2006, after being sworn in as a witness in the civil jury trial.

The trial continues.