Court told Tommy Sheridan visited home of woman who claims they had affair

Tommy Sheridan visited the home of a woman who claims to have had an affair with him, a court was told.

Mr Sheridan was alleged to have visited Katrine Trolle's house in Dundee in autumn 2004, his perjury trial at the High Court in Glasgow heard.

Ms Trolle has told the trial she had sex with Mr Sheridan on several occasions between 2000 and 2004, including at her own home in Dundee and at his house in Glasgow.

Ralph Barnett, a journalist, told the court he was at the Dundee house one evening and saw Mr Sheridan arrive.

Mr Sheridan and his wife Gail, both 46, are accused of lying under oath during his successful defamation action against the News of the World in 2006.

Mr Sheridan denies lying to the court during the trial, which followed the newspaper's claims that he was an adulterer who visited swingers' clubs. He won 200,000 in damages.

During the action, Mr Sheridan said he had not had a sexual relationship with Ms Trolle and he had never stayed at her home, at Kingennie Court in Dundee.

But yesterday Mr Barnett told the trial he had seen Mr Sheridan arrive at the house and go upstairs with Ms Trolle when he was visiting his then-girlfriend, Ruth Adamson, who shared the house. He said he had checked his diaries and believed the most likely date for the visit was 11 October, 2004.

He said: "At some point in the evening, Katrine told us she was going to meet Mr Sheridan.

"She returned in her car with Mr Sheridan. We were aware of the car coming up the drive and we were aware of the door opening. Katrine and Mr Sheridan no more than poked their heads around the door. They went upstairs; they didn't come into the living room where we were."

Mr Barnett said he did not see Mr Sheridan again that night or the following morning.

He added that although there were three bedrooms in the house, the spare bedroom was "chaos". He said: "It was just a box room, a storage room. There was never a bed set up there to my knowledge."

Mr Barnett's ex-girlfriend, Ms Adamson, told the court she had also seen Mr Sheridan visit the house she shared with Ms Trolle.

Ms Adamson said the visit took place in late 2004.

She said: "He came round to the house one night. We were introduced, shook hands, there was brief chit-chat, then Katrine and himself went upstairs. It was only the one time I saw him."

Ms Adamson told the trial Mr Sheridan would call her mobile phone to talk to Ms Trolle.She said Ms Trolle did not have her own mobile, and the house did not have a landline, so she would let her friend use her phone.

She said: "I spoke to him a few times on the phone when he phoned for Katrine."

The trial also heard evidence from Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) member Steven Nimmo, the party's regional organiser for the Lothians area in 2004.

He was the 11th member of the party's executive to tell the court he heard Mr Sheridan admit visiting a sex club in Manchester on two occasions.

Mr Nimmo was not called to give evidence at the 2006 libel action. But he said he met Mr Sheridan at Burger King in Edinburgh Waverley Station shortly before the action started.

He said yesterday: "I explained to Tommy Sheridan my position that I felt he should drop the case and, if I was called as a witness, I would tell the truth.

"We just went our separate ways. Obviously Tommy decided to carry on with his action."

The trial continues.