Four-letter tape more like a cartoon than Sheridan, court told

Cursing and swearing on a secretly recorded video was more like the foul-mouthed cartoon character Cartman than the gentle-voiced Tommy Sheridan, a court has heard.

A political ally said he reckoned he had only ever heard Sheridan use the "F" word once in a blue moon, but it was sprinkled throughout the tape in which the former MSP is said to have confessed to attending a swingers' club.

"I have never heard Tommy swear like that . . . you sound like Cartman from South Park on there," Steve Arnott told the High Court in Glasgow.

Sheridan is claimed to have gone to the swingers' club with two men, his brother-in-law Andrew McFarlane and friend Gary Clark, but they were actually at home watching golfers swinging clubs on television, the jury heard.

Mr McFarlane said he had a beautiful wife and would never dream of being unfaithful, and that two women who had alleged he had sex with them were lying. Sheridan and his wife, Gail, both 46, are accused of giving perjured evidence during his successful defamation action in 2006 against the News of the World which had published allegations about his private life. They deny the charge.

The court has been told that, after the civil case, George McNeilage, a former friend of Sheridan, sold a video to the newspaper for 200,000. He said it had been filmed covertly and although Sheridan could not seen, it was his voice which could be heard.

Mr Arnott, 48, of Inverness, said he had known Sheridan since 1986 and had been a fellow member of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) before joining the Solidarity party.

He had watched the video but did not think it was Sheridan's voice.

"It does sound a wee bit like you but it is meant to sound a wee bit like you - a fabrication would not work if it did not sound a wee bit like you. To me, that is someone doing your public voice, your public persona, and doing it in a very kind of rough way," said Mr Arnott.

"When you speak one to one with people, your voice is much more gentle. And the swearing. I have heard you say 'f***' about 24 times in 24 years. You sound like Cartman from South Park on there. I am not convinced on that score."

Sheridan is alleged to have visited Cupid's, a swingers' club in Manchester, on the night of Friday 27 September, 2002, with Mr McFarlane, Mr Clark, Anvar Khan, a journalist, and Katrine Trolle, an SSP activist.

Mr McFarlane, a former footballer with Queen of the South, is married to Mrs Sheridan's sister, Gillian. He said of that night that he had recently undergone hip surgery and was at home with his wife watching golf on television. He said he had never been unfaithful.

The trial continues.