Letters: Guilty as charged

Tom Watson MP ignores a number of fundamental truths when he queries whether Tommy Sheridan was rightfully convicted and jailed (Features, 8 May).

No matter that News International may have acted in the most reprehensible manner, which may include hacking Tommy Sheridan’s phone (although this is as yet still to be proven), it does not change the attested facts that Sheridan attended Cupids in 1996 and 2001, had a relationship with Katrine Trolle and committed perjury in these regards in his 2006 defamation case.

Any phone hacking is immaterial to these facts, and all the more so because the hacking – if it took place – relates to 2004 onwards.

The same is the case with the missing e-mails. This is fully documented in my biography of Sheridan (Tommy Sheridan: From Hero to Zero? A Political Biography, 2012).

Of course, no right-minded person would think that Tommy Sheridan would not be capable of very effectively using any evidence of phone hacking and missing e-mails in a court of law to convince a jury that he had not committed perjury in 2006.

That is testament to his persuasive powers of oratory. But it would not change the facts or the points of law.

(Prof) Gregor Gall

Research Professor of Industrial Relations

Director of the Work and Employment Research Unit (WERU)

University of Hertfordshire

Hatfield