Sheridan trial: I met Tommy at Cupid's - and took him home for tea

A WOMAN has told a court how she invited Tommy Sheridan home for tea after recognising him in a sex club.

Pamela Tucker, 39, told the High Court in Glasgow yesterday she had known Sheridan from his involvement in politics and spoke to him at Cupid's swingers' club in Manchester when he was collecting friends.

The group went to her home, and she and Sheridan had gone out for pizzas, Ms Tucker claimed at the High Court in Glasgow.

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Sheridan insisted he had never met her, but she stated: "I am not telling lies."

Another witness, a former political ally, alleged that he had a meeting with Sheridan, who had gazed into a cappuccino as he confessed to a "weakness of the flesh" and visiting adult clubs.

Sheridan, 46, and his wife, Gail, 46, deny committing perjury during their evidence to a civil court in 2006 when Sheridan successfully sued the News of the World over allegations it had published about his private life.

Ms Tucker, a personal assistant, said she had used her middle name Stella when she attended Cupid's with her partner "Robbie". She recalled an occasion when she and Robbie had an argument just as they were entering the club, and he left.

"I saw Mr Sheridan. He was picking some people up at the club and I invited him up for a cup of tea before he headed back home because he had a wife," said Ms Tucker.

Sheridan had been by himself when she spoke to him, but he was then joined by three others, a man and two women. One of the women was slim with reddish hair, and the other was "quite a big girl". She had come to know the second woman as Anvar, because Anvar ended up that night with Ms Tucker's flatmate, Ian, and visited their home on another occasion.

Asked if she had known who Sheridan was, Ms Tucker said: "Of course. Because of what he did with the poll tax and stuff."

Pointing to him in the dock, she added: "He is over there, beside his wife."

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Ms Tucker continued: "I invited Mr Sheridan and his friends for a cup of tea back at Ian's. We (she and Sheridan] went to get pizzas. We came back as soon as the pizzas were ready, and they ate it and then they left."

She was unsure of the year in which the incident took place. Sheridan suggested to Ms Tucker that she was either very confused or not telling the truth, because he had never met her and he had never been to Cupid's.She agreed it was a long time ago, but added: "We were both going into the club, because you were collecting your friends."

Dr Nicholas McKerrell, 40, a law lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, said he was a member of the Scottish Socialist Party and had known Sheridan since he was a teenager.

In February 2005, just before an election to select Sheridan's successor as SSP convener, the two men met at the university, and had a coffee.

"He said he wanted to speak about events of the last few months… he was quite evasive. He was looking into his cappuccino as he spoke. He said, 'I think you know a bit about this, that I attended adult clubs in Manchester, twice in 1996 and 2002. You know what it is like… weakness of the flesh.'

"He mentioned Anvar Khan had attended the clubs with him. He said she would never testify," said Dr McKerrell.

He agreed he had joined a group within the SSP - branded in other evidence as an anti-Sheridan faction - but rejected the contention that Sheridan's sister, who also worked at the university, had been with them throughout the meeting.

The trial continues.

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