Sheridan sentenced to three years in prison

Former leader of the Scottish Socialist party is convicted of lying on oath to win his case against News of the World

The disgraced socialist politician Tommy Sheridan has been jailed for three years after being told he had brought "the walls of the temple crashing down" by repeatedly lying on oath about his adultery.

Passing sentence at the high court in Glasgow today, Lord Bracadale said Sheridan had deliberately committed perjury after ignoring a series of warnings from friends not to sue the News of the World over its allegations about his sex life six years ago.

Sheridan was found guilty by a majority verdict last month of lying in order to win a �200,000 libel action against the newspaper in 2006, after the longest perjury trial in Scottish legal history.

Sheridan's lawyer, Aamer Anwar, announced he would appeal against the conviction and would start legal proceedings against News International, the owner of the NoW, as well as the Metropolitan police and Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for hacking mobile phones for the paper.

The trial heard that Sheridan's home address, phone number and pin code appeared in Mulcaire's notebooks; the two entries appeared to date from 2004, when the NoW was preparing its expos�s of Sheridan's sex life. A senior Met detective, Det Chief Superintendent Phil Williams, admitted at the trial that the force never investigated why Sheridan's name and details appeared.

In a statement read by Anwar outside the court, Sheridan said: "For far too long, NoW has scapegoated and destroyed lives with immunity. The multimillion-pound prosecution will separate me from my wife and child, and that will be heartbreaking. But I will continue to fight a system that protects the real criminals ? the rich and powerful."

Andy Coulson, who was the paper's editor when its stories about Sheridan's sex life were published and when it lost the defamation action, gave evidence during the trial. Andy Coulson, until last week the prime minister's chief media adviser, gave evidence during Sheridan's trialabout the hacking scandal ? he had been the paper's editor when its stories of Sheridan's sex life were published and it lost the defamation action.

Referring to Coulson's resignation as David Cameron's head of communications last Friday because of the escalating hacking controversy, Sheridan said Coulson should face "real justice" and be prosecuted for the alleged hacking.

The former Scottish Socialist party leader and MSP pleaded for leniency from the court and. He argued he had not been convicted for lying about a murder or to cover up a serious crime. "This is not a murder trial, nobody has died nor has an innocent party been imprisoned," he said.

Bracadale told Sheridan, 46, he was undoubtedly a very effective politician, who worked hard for others and whose contribution to the anti-poll tax campaign "will become part of the fabric of Scottish social and political history". But he then quoted a previous legal judgement which said perjury was a serious crime which "strikes at the fundamental basis of our system of justice."

Sheridan was told he was solely to blame for his perjury conviction: he knew that to win his libel action he had to lie under oath and, by lying, he won a "very large sum" in damages.

"By pursuing, and persisting in the pursuit of, a defamation action against the proprietors of the News of the World, you brought the walls of the temple crashing down, not only on your own head but also on the heads of your family and your political friends and foes alike," the judge said.

In a legal first in a Scottish court, journalists were allowed to tweet from court during the sentencing.

As Sheridan was led away to begin his sentence, his wife, Gail, held up her right fist in salute and his mother, Alice, shouted out: "The man who could not be bought."

Gail Sheridan, who was prosecuted but cleared of perjury last month, told scores of reporters and supporters outside the court that her husband would resume his political life after he was released. Several sources say she is now unlikely to run in her husband's place as a Solidarity candidate in the Scottish parliamentary elections in May.

"Tommy has dedicated his life to helping others," she said. "The real reason why he has imprisoned today is because he has fought injustice and inequality with very beat of his heart. But it won't be long before Tommy is back, stronger and continuing the fight."

The NoW confirmed it was appealing against Sheridan's libel victory. The paper will demand Sheridan pays all its legal costs if it wins, potentially bankrupting him. Under electoral law, Sheridan would be barred from standing again for parliament if he became an undischarged bankrupt.

Sheridan was taken to Barlinnie prison in Glasgow, but his supporters believe he could be released before Christmas with an electronic tag.

The NoW said it had been vindicated. "This is a just outcome to a long and complex criminal case. Today's sentence also provides closure for the many witnesses who very bravely exposed their own lives to public scrutiny when they testified to Mr Sheridan's guilt," the paper said.

Severin Carrell

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