Newspaper refused appeal on Tommy Sheridan defamation case

Judges at the UK's highest court have refused a bid by the owner of the now-defunct News Of The World to appeal against former MSP Tommy Sheridan's defamation victory a decade ago.

The News of the World has lost in its appeal against Tommy Sheridan (Picture by JANE BARLOW)

Mr Sheridan won the high-profile case against the newspaper after it printed allegations about the then-Socialist MSP’s sex life, which included claims he visited a swingers’ club.

The paper was ordered to pay £200,000 in damages, but weeks later a police investigation was launched into allegations of perjury and Mr Sheridan was charged.

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He was jailed after being found guilty in December 2010 of lying under oath during the successful defamation action, and was freed from prison after serving just over a year of his sentence.

Mr Sheridan has always denied the allegations and launched an unsuccessful attempt to appeal against his conviction.

The case returned to the courts last year as News Group Newspapers (NGN) wanted to have the 2006 civil jury verdict set aside, but judges at the Court of Session in Edinburgh refused the appeal.

An application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court in London has now also been rejected as it “does not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance”.

The Supreme Court’s order said: “The court ordered that permission to appeal be refused because the application does not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance which ought to be considered at this time bearing in mind that the case has already been the subject of judicial decision and reviewed on appeal.”