Witness backs Sheridan over denial of sex club claims

A POLITICAL ally of Tommy Sheridan has contradicted several former colleagues by claiming the ex-MSP had denied attending a swingers' club.

John "Jock" Penman, 60, said he was "in no doubt whatsoever" that Sheridan had refuted claims about his private life at a special meeting of the Scottish Socialist Party.

A number of other party members have given evidence to the High Court in Glasgow that Sheridan had confessed, but Mr Penman denied he would lie to support Sheridan for the good of the socialist movement.

Sheridan, 46, won a defamation case in 2006 against the News of the World, which had published allegations about his private life, including that he had attended a swingers' club in Manchester.

He and his wife, Gail, 46, are accused of giving perjured evidence during that case. Both deny the charge.

Mr Penman, now a member of Sheridan's Solidarity party, said the SSP executive had met after an article about an unnamed MSP in 2004.

He told the court: "He (Sheridan) said the MSP could not be him. The description was all wrong. The MSP goes to swingers' clubs and he said, 'I have never been to a swingers' club.' I am in no doubt whatsoever he said that."

He added: "Alan McCombes said, 'It was you, I know it was you.' Tommy Sheridan denied that.

"He said 'rubbish' or something like that, and the two of them started arguing."

Mr Penman rejected suggestions by the advocate-depute, Alex Prentice, QC, that on several occasions, Mr Penman had told people that Sheridan had confessed at the meeting.

If those people said that, then they were lying, he stated. Mr Penman claimed there had been a "clique" within the SSP which had wanted to bring down Sheridan.

"That was their sole reason for existing," he alleged.

Earlier, Sheridan's former friend and political ally Alan McCombes finished his testimony with an angry rejection of "scurrilous" claims that he scripted a video being used against Sheridan in his perjury trial.

Mr McCombes said Sheridan's accusation that he helped make the film was nonsense, adding: "Nor did I hire Rory Bremner to do your voice, Tommy."

The judge, Lord Bracadale, had to intervene at one stage to end a charged verbal battle between the two men, telling Mr McCombes that Sheridan, who is conducting his own case, was entitled to put forward his position for the witness's comment.

"My comment is, you are lying again, Tommy... one of the hundreds upon hundreds of lies you have uttered in the course of the last six years," said Mr McCombes.

The jury has been shown a video which appeared to have been shot secretly and which featured two men in conversation.One voice, said by a number of witnesses to be that of Sheridan, described as the biggest mistake of his life a confession he had made to SSP colleagues.

Under cross-examination by Sheridan, Mr McCombes said he had viewed part of the tape on the News of the World's website.

"You helped make the tape," Sheridan stated.

"That is just nonsense," replied Mr McCombes.

Sheridan accused Mr McCombes of helping write the script, but the witness insisted: "I did not write the script for that tape. That is another scurrilous and false accusation you are making."

He added: "I don't know anybody who does an impression of you apart from Des McLean, the comedian, but he is a close friend of yours so I don't expect he would agree to impersonate you.

"I believe that is your voice, and that is a free-flowing conversation. It is not a scripted tape."

The other man in the video is said to be George McNeilage, Sheridan's best man.

Sheridan said there would be evidence led at a later date in the trial that Mr McNeilage had agreed a contract worth 200,000 with Andrew Coulson, then editor of News of the World, and currently the Prime Minister's top spin doctor, for the tape.

Mr McCombes said he felt the jury in the 2006 action had come to a "mistaken decision" in finding against the News of the World, adding that he had been "shocked to core" by the way Sheridan had conducted the case.

He said: "You put your own party on trial. People have been accused of quite serious criminal acts - of perjury, of dishonesty."

The indictment against the Sheridans contains three charges in total, two of which are broken down into subsections.

It is alleged Mr Sheridan made false statements as a witness in the defamation action of July 21 2006.

He also denies a charge of attempting to persuade a witness to commit perjury shortly before the 23-day trial got under way.

Mrs Sheridan denies making false statements on July 31 2006, after being sworn in as a witness in the civil jury trial.

The trial continues.