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November 26, 2010

Prosecutors drop several allegations against Sheridans

By PA Mediapoint

Prosecutors yesterday dropped several allegations made against Tommy and Gail Sheridan.

The Crown decided not to pursue Sheridan over two allegations of lying under oath during his successful defamation action against the News of the World in 2006.

Two allegations of perjury were dropped against his wife Gail.

A total of eight subsections on the indictment were deleted at the High Court in Glasgow.

The accusations related to an alleged sex party at the Moat House hotel in Glasgow in June 2002.

The couple, both 46, both deny lying during the action against the newspaper at the High Court in Glasgow.

The defamation action followed the newspaper’s claims that Sheridan was an adulterer who visited swingers’ clubs. Sheridan won £200,000 in damages after the newspaper printed the allegations about his private life.

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The indictment against the Sheridans contains three charges in total, two of which are broken down into subsections. It is alleged 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 advocate depute Alex Prentice QC told the jury yesterday: “I have been able to review matters and I have moved to delete some parts of the indictment.”

He then told the jury which parts were to be removed.

The deleted allegations stated Sheridan had lied at the civil jury trial at the Court of Session in Edinburgh when he said there had been “no event” at the Moat House hotel in June 2002, where he was alleged to have had sex with Beverley Dixon.

They also state he said Helen Allison and Anne Colvin lied in their evidence when they told the trial Sheridan had been at the Moat House hotel with his brother-in-law Andrew McFarlane.

The allegations removed against Gail Sheridan claimed she had lied when she told the court she had been with her husband during the whole evening on June 14 2002, when the Moat House party was alleged to have taken place.

The second deleted allegation was that she had also lied about visiting Andrew McFarlane with Sheridan on June 15 2002.

The trial, before Lord Bracadale, will continue today.

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