Tommy Sheridan out of prison and determined to have his day

TOMMY Sheridan has emerged from prison to make a typically firebrand return to public life, as a gagging order preventing him from speaking in public was lifted.

Speaking after his release from Castle Huntly open prison following his conviction for perjury, the one-time Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) leader vowed to clear his name and said that although a battle had been lost, the war was his to win.

He said he would continue his six-year crusade against one of Britain’s largest media companies and warned News International that his “fight is far from over”.

Embracing his wife Gail as he addressed the media from outside his Glasgow home, the 47-year-old also pledged to return to court “not as an accused, but as an accuser”, claiming that witnesses in his trial had told little more than “damned lies”.

The speech capped a dramatic few hours which saw Sheridan leave prison on the outskirts of Dundee, having served just over a year of his three-year sentence.

He had been found guilty of lying during his successful defamation action against the now-defunct News of the World newspaper in 2006.

At the conclusion of that civil case, he was awarded £200,000 in damages, but a jury at the High Court in Glasgow adjudged him to have lied under oath concerning the tabloid newspaper’s claims that he was an adulterer and he had visited a swinger’s club.

Following the longest perjury trial in Scottish legal history, the former Celebrity Big Brother contestant was jailed on 26 January last year. He was convicted of five out of six allegations in a single charge of perjury, relating to his evidence during the civil action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

During the three-month trial, Sheridan said he was the victim of a “vendetta” by the police and a “conspiracy” involving the Sunday newspaper and former colleagues within the SSP.

In August last year, he was denied the chance to appeal against his conviction following a ruling by senior judges.

Flanked by his lawyer, Aamer Anwar, and Mrs Sheridan, who rubbed her husband’s back affectionately, he stood outside his Glasgow home to deliver his address.

“Although we lost a trial in December of last year, we will continue to fight to clear my name, and we are determined to highlight the contrast in treatment between the 20-plus former News of the World journalists who have been arrested for illegal activities,” he said. “I’ve not read of any of them who had their homes raided over a mammoth nine-hour search, or their children traumatised in the interests of justice. Apparently they handed themselves in. Well, I’ve got news for them and others – this fight is far from over, and this story has not yet finished.

“I believe that I will return to Glasgow High Court within the near future, but not as an accused, but as an accuser – of witnesses at my trial for the lies and damned lies that they gave in the course of the evidence that allowed a narrow conviction to be passed.

“We are confident that once the lies of those perjurers are highlighted, we will have a very strong appeal that will hopefully lead to the quashing of my unfair, unsafe, and unsound conviction.”

Just over two hours earlier, Sheridan, wearing a black coat, blue jeans, and a red wraparound scarf, had emerged from Castle Huntly to hug and kiss his wife at the prison entrance.

The couple walked arm-in-arm to a silver Honda, which took them to their home in Cardonald.

In the garden of the semi-detached villa, around 14 supporters demonstrated their solidarity, unfurling a banner which read, in black on red, “Welcome Home Tommy”.

Then, at 11:30am, the Honda arrived to resounding cheers. Sheridan, his greying hair closely cropped, stepped out smiling, while Mrs Sheridan, wearing a long black coat and sunglasses, again hugged her husband.

As they made their way past photographers, Sheridan enjoyed an emotional embrace with his six-year-old daughter, Gabrielle, before the couple entered the house, later re-emerging with Mr Anwar for the press conference at 12:15pm.

Although his forceful declaration was designed to warned those who he had perceived to have wronged him, Sheridan also spoke with affection for those closest to him, and the strangers who had stood by him throughout.

“It is a delight to be back home with my beautiful wife, whom I love dearly, and my daughter, whom I have missed beyond words are able to describe,” he said. “I want to thank the thousands of ordinary folk across Scotland and further afield who have taken the time to write to me, sending cards and letters, and to contact me on Facebook to show their solidarity with me and my family over this last difficult 12 months.”

In a glimpse of the Tommy Sheridan of old, when the bread and butter of political discourse was not being interrupted by lengthy court battles and appeals, he also condemned the administration at Westminster.

“In the 12 months I’ve been away, things have not got any better for ordinary working class folk,” he reasoned.

“Wages have been cut, prices have increased, and the ConDem millionaire government wants to make ordinary folk pay for a crisis that’s got nothing to do with them.”

He then made clear that, come what may, he would be back in the public eye for good, campaigning for his own special brand of independence.

“I look forward to re-engaging in the battle for justice and against inequality and poverty,” he said. “I also look forward to engaging in the campaign to deliver Scotland not just an independent country, but an independent socialist country.”

For his part, Mr Anwar confirmed that he had been instructed to draw up an appeal related to the outcome of Operation Rubicon, a Strathclyde Police investigation into alleged perjury during Sheridan’s trial, which could constitute new evidence in a court of law.

He said: “I’m aware of certain aspects of the inquiry that we would consider to be new evidence, but we want the enquiry to be completed before we proceed. As far as we’re concerned, any jury is entitled to know that any witness that comes before them are credible, and that they are telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

“But Mr Sheridan believes that if the jury had known that witnesses, for instance, were lying, had received money, or were subject to other pressure because their phones had hacked, then they might have come to an alternative view.”

Mr Anwar also said that the Sheridan legal team may also look to raise a civil action at the High Court in London in relation to phone hacking allegations.

He added: “Mr Sheridan is technically a complainer in the dossier myself and Tom Watson MP launched back in July on the day the News of the World shut down. Statements have been taken from Mr Sheridan as a complainer.

“It was better to have Tommy released to be able to move on the question of raising a civil action in the High Court in London in relation to phone hacking.

“Let me put this bluntly – we are aware that Tommy Sheridan’s phone was hacked. The information that we have received shows that the information on Glen Mulcaire’s notebook could not have been received by any other means other than hacking the phone.”

Mr Anwar also criticised the Scottish Prison Service which, he claimed, had informed Sheridan before Christmas that as part of his conditions of early release, he would be banned from addressing the media directly.

Such a condition, he said, was lifted this morning, but he would be seeking answers.

“What we have to say publically to the media is none of the Scottish Prison Service’s business,” he said. “Perhaps they saw common sense and decided to lift that condition, but who did they take advice from? Did the government or the justice department have any role in this? Did anyone from the police give them advice?

“We don’t know, but I do expect to write and ask for that information to be released under Freedom of Information. It doesn’t really matter what you think of Tommy Sheridan’s politics, it was a step too far. Whether you agree with him or hate him, in a democracy you’re entitled to speak.”

And speak he will. For the moment, Sheridan and his family look set to enjoy their reunion, but if today’s speech is anything to go by, they will also be anticipating a return to court in the not too distant future.

Behind the red front door of Castle Sheridan, plans for the next battle, if not the penultimate war, are gathering pace.