Gail Sheridan left in tears as trial hears lurid tales of sex under wedding pictures

A FORMER political activist drew tears from Gail Sheridan yesterday as she told a court that her first of several sexual encounters with Tommy Sheridan had been in his bed, under his wedding photograph, just before Christmas.

• Katrine Trolle is all smiles as she arrives at court Picture: PA

Katrine Trolle, 36, said that on other occasions she and Sheridan had had sex in Glasgow's City Chambers, went three-in-a-bed with his brother-in-law, and visited a swingers' club, which he described as classy but was "minging".

Her evidence was interrupted by a five-minute break after Mrs Sheridan became upset and was comforted by her husband in the dock.

Ms Trolle rejected claims by Paul McBride, QC, for Mrs Sheridan, that she was a spiteful and deceitful individual and a "practised and conniving liar".

Ms Trolle countered: "I am not telling lies."

Sheridan, 46, and his wife, also 46, deny committing perjury in 2006 at the Court of Session in Edinburgh when the former MSP and leader of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) won 200,000 damages against the News of the World over allegations it published about his private life.

• Tommy Sheridan told to turn down the volume

Ms Trolle, an occupational therapist, said she left her native Denmark in 1996, studied at university in Aberdeen and married a Scot. She joined the SSP and got to know Sheridan. Her homeland had been one of their topics of conversation.

"Tommy Sheridan was quite interested in our liberal views on pornography and sex … we had been flirting quite a bit and he asked if I would come and see him," said Ms Trolle.

"We went to his house. I think I had a glass of wine. Without much further ado, we went up to the bedroom and had sex."

Ms Trolle understood that Mrs Sheridan had been at a Christmas function with work colleagues and she phoned the house to get her husband to collect her. Ms Trolle and Sheridan "quickly got dressed" and he dropped her off on his way to pick up his wife.

Ms Trolle said she had drawn a sketch of how she remembered the inside of the house. There had been a white plastic Christmas tree on the landing, and she had passed a room, containing a sunbed and clothes on a hanger, on the way to the bedroom.

The bed had a "flowery" bedspread with "frilly bits" and there was a wedding photograph of the Sheridans on the wall.

Some months later, Sheridan had taken her to the home of his brother-in-law, Andy McFarlane. "It sort of slowly dawned on me, all three of us were going to have sexual intercourse.We spent most of the night having sex …we did sleep a few hours," she said.

Ms Trolle alleged further instances of sex with Sheridan, in her home in Aberdeen and in Glasgow after she and Sheridan had attended a St Andrew's Day march to George Square.

"I made the excuse I needed the toilet and he said we could go to the city chambers. We went to where Tommy had his office and we had sexual intercourse there," said Ms Trolle.

She claimed that Sheridan had talked about "a place where people had sex" in Manchester - and she agreed to go.

"He said it was a lovely place. I remember thinking I was an absolute idiot because the club looked nothing from the outside like it had been described. (Inside] there was minging decor, old carpets, dodgy looking," Ms Trolle told the jury.

She and Sheridan had gone with two men and a woman to a side room and "had sex, all of us".

She added: "There was a guy who recognised Tommy and he said 'you must be Gail'. I did not know what to do. I pretended I had not heard him."

After the club, the group went with two other couples to a house, and "we all had sex with various partners". Ms Trolle is due to be questioned by Sheridan when the trial resumes today.