Witness saw Tommy Sheridan at hotel

A WITNESS told Tommy Sheridan's perjury trial today that he had "omitted" to tell police he had seen the politician at a hotel the night before Sheridan's brother-in-law's wedding.

Matthew McColl told the High Court in Glasgow that he was "p****d off" with officers when they came to his house at 6.30am and "had no compunction to tell them anything but my name".

But today he told the trial he had seen Sheridan at the Moathouse Hotel in Glasgow with Andrew McFarlane and four women - Anne Colvin, Helen Allison, Jacqueline White and Beverley Dickson - on June 14, 2002, the night before Mr McFarlane's wedding. He married Gail Sheridan's sister Gillian in June 2002.

The former MSP and his wife Gail, both 46, deny lying under oath during his successful defamation action against the News of the World newspaper in 2006.

The action followed the newspaper's claims that he was an adulterer who visited swinger's clubs.

Sheridan won 200,000 in damages after the newspaper printed the allegations about his private life.

The indictment against Sheridan contains the charge that he lied at the action, saying there was no event at the hotel on the night of June 14, 2002.

But Mr McColl, 50, from Glasgow, told the court how he, Sheridan and Mr McFarlane went to the hotel after meeting for drinks in Glasgow city centre.

He said he had invited Ms Dickson and another woman called Jacqueline White to the hotel as well.

The court was told she was an old friend who had flown up from Birmingham because she "fancied" coming to Glasgow for "a night out and some shopping".

Mr McColl said he had discussed booking a suite of rooms at the hotel with Sheridan and Mr McFarlane so they could continue drinking after the hotel's bar closed.

He said he initially went to the suite with Ms White, Ms Colvin and Ms Allison but left shortly afterwards to collect his credit card from behind the bar.

He told Advocate Depute Alex Prentice QC: "When I returned from the bar the people who were in the suite were Jacqueline White, Helen Allison, Beverley Dixon, Anne Colvin, Tommy Sheridan and Andy McFarlane."

Mr Prentice asked him: "You omitted to tell the police that Mr Sheridan was at the Moathouse Hotel?"

Mr McColl replied: "Yes. To my recollection Mr Sheridan was at the Moathouse."

The trial, before Lord Bracadale, continues.