Court Report 3
The News of the World has now closed its defence against Tommy’s suit for defamation.
On Wednesday and Thursday there were a number of SSP witnesses, including some who in their own words were ‘dragged kicking and struggling to the courts’, but yet somehow arrived with a big smile on their face for the front page of the Herald, as Tommy pointed out in court.
The final day of the NOTW defence (Friday 21st July) saw only two witnesses called, namely Louise Baillie, the News of the World reporter who wrote the 31st October 2004 Anvar Khan article, and Tommy Sheridan himself. The pieces below cannot be guaranteed to be exact records of what was said in court, but they are offered to try and give SSP Majority supporters a gist of the exchanges, which at different times through the day have been described as ‘volcanic’, ‘magnificent’, ‘defining’, and ‘pivotal’.
The case is expected to last another 7 days, with Tommy calling his witnesses from now on.
EXCERPTS FROM CROSS-EXAMINATION OF LOUISE BAILLIE
BY TOMMY SHERIDAN
TOMMY SHERIDAN What other stories have you been involved in concerning myself or my family?
LOUISE BAILLIE None.
TOMMY SHERIDAN Give you a wee moment to think that over. Are you sure?
LOUISE BAILLIE I can't think of any.
TOMMY SHERIDAN You don't recall visiting my home to try to speak to my wife?
LOUISE BAILLIE Oh - oh, I did that, yes, yes I did. That must have been in 2003 or 2004.
TOMMY SHERIDAN And you were reporting for the News of the World at the time?
LOUISE BAILLIE Yes.
TOMMY SHERIDAN Do you think the News of the World is a paper that is interested in stories of public interest?
LOUISE BAILLIE Yes, I do.
TOMMY SHERIDAN Could you tell the court then, why it was you visited my home?
LOUISE BAILLIE Yes we got a tip-off - and my news editor asked me to go and knock the door of Tommy Sheridan and ask his wife if she had just had plastic surgery. I did this and got a door slammed in my face. Then about two or three hours later she phoned to apologise for slamming the door in my face.
TOMMY SHERIDAN So can you tell the court what was the newsworthiness of Mrs Sheridan having plastic surgery - if she had any?
LOUISE BAILLIE Obviously, you are a public figure and this was a tip we'd receivedabout your wife, so I knocked the door.
TOMMY SHERIDAN Did you feel comfortable chapping the door to ask a woman if she had had plastic surgery?
LOUISE BAILLIE Yes.
TOMMY SHERIDAN Not think there is a problem with that?
LOUISE BAILLIE No.
TOMMY SHERIDAN Not think it is an invasion of someone's privacy?
LOUISE BAILLIE No, I don't.
LORD TURNBULL: Can I ask, Ms Baillie, what would the newsworthiness of that be?
LOUISE BAILLIE Purely because (hesitation) she is married to Mr Sheridan.
LORD TURNBULL: How does that make it news?
LOUISE BAILLIE Because obviously Mr Sheridan is a very well-known public figure.
LORD TURNBULL: Yes?
LOUISE BAILLIE And we had a tip, so...
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TOMMY SHERIDAN And did Anvar Khan tell you that the story she was about to tell you was true because it was in her book, or that it was true because she was telling you it was true?
LOUISE BAILLIE It was true because she was telling me it was true.
TOMMY SHERIDAN You see, Miss Baillie, we have been told in evidence under oath by Anwar Khan that this story wasn't true. It was just a puff for her book. Did you know that?
LOUISE BAILLIE I didn’t know that. Anvar certainly never mentioned to me anything about a 'puff'.
TOMMY SHERIDAN So Anvar told you that this story was true?
LOUISE BAILLIE Yes.
TOMMY SHERIDAN And this person, who Anvar told you about in this story, got drunk in her flat and had drunken sex with her?
LOUISE BAILLIE Yes, that is what Anvar said.
TOMMY SHERIDAN Did you discuss this ‘true story’ with your former news editor Douglas Wight?
LOUISE BAILLIE Yes.
TOMMY SHERIDAN And did Douglas Wight inquire about who this unnamed MSP might be?
LOUISE BAILLIE No, I asked him.
TOMMY SHERIDAN And what did he say?
LOUISE BAILLIE He wouldn't tell me.
TOMMY SHERIDAN And did he indicate that he knew who it was?
LOUISE BAILLIE Yes, he knew.
TOMMY SHERIDAN And he was happy for this article to be carried?
LOUISE BAILLIE I would imagine so.
TOMMY SHERIDAN Is it then your evidence that when this article was carried in the News of the World, Douglas Wight said that he was aware who was supposed to be the subject of this article?
LOUISE BAILLIE Yes.
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EXCERPTS FROM EXAMINATION OF TOMMY SHERIDAN
BY MR JONES QC FOR NEWS INTERNATIONAL
TOMMY SHERIDAN My position is that I wasn't forced out in 2004. My position is that on 2004, 9th November, we had a very long discussion that took place after a whole series of information that I received about the News of the World trying to set me up, trying to do me in and we had discussion on the 9th November about how we should address those articles, given the 31st October article and also intense speculation that a story was going to break that I was somehow or other was this unnamed MSP.
I discussed that matter with the Executive Committee before taking the first scan of my new child to my sisters in Bellshill.
I left the meeting early, but before I left I made it absolutely clear that I had had it up to my neck with the News of the World's harassment of me and I was determined that this time I was going to take them to court if they printed allegations against me. The party was not happy about that, the Executive was not happy about that, they were very worried about that, we were in the midst of a financial crisis. The month before, if you check the news cuttings, you will find that the SSP was declared technically bankrupt. The party could have get dragged into it financially. So I was not forced out – I was asked to consider standing down if I was determined to take the option of taking the News of the World on.
I probably would be wrong to say I was happy with that option, but once I had taken that decision, after discussing it with my wife in relation to her pregnancy, then I felt relieved. Which is why you will see a bit of bounce in my conversation on the television clip with Ian McWhirter because I felt there was a load off my shoulders; I could help my wife properly but I could also concentrate on what I believe was a pack of lies from the News of the World. As a journalist, I pick up an awful lot of stories after all, and I had been hearing them from way back in the mid 1990s - so I was very aware that the News of the World was trying to set me up.
Mr JONES QC Can we look please at 7/50 ? This is the minute that was produced to the Court under protest, Mr Sheridan. Is this a true minute, or is it a concocted minute?
TOMMY SHERIDAN It is concocted, full of half-truths, distorted. Much of what appears in this so-called minute, and I don't accept that it is a minute for a moment, much of what appears was discussed, such as strategies, taking on the News of the World, party finances, all of that type of stuff was discussed. At the meeting, undoubtedly members of the Executive Committee believed that I was the subject of the 31st October News of the World article. There is no doubt in my mind that they believed that. In fact, we have heard evidence in this Court that they came to the meeting with their minds made up about that, so it probably didn't matter what I said.
MR JONES QC It did matter what you said because you came to the meeting and you admitted that you were the person in the Anvar Khan article who had gone to the sex club in Manchester?
TOMMY SHERIDAN That is just a downright lie. I informed the meeting that I have heard rumours dating back to 1996 concerning a particular club. The club Cupid's was named because it has been named to me before by other journalists and other contacts who have said that the News of the World have been trying to fit me up and frame me for quite a while.
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TOMMY SHERIDAN There are people who have come into the witness box who have taken the side of the most reactionary scab outfit in the world. I make no bones about that. That is what the News of the World is.
MR JONES QC I am talking about the SSP members that you addressed this open letter to. You are telling them that "They should think about whose side you are on when a socialist takes on the Murdoch empire."
TOMMY SHERIDAN Absolutely. We already heard that the majority of the party
members backed this action and accept political solidarity - but there was a minority who did not.
TOMMY SHERIDAN [concerning his Open Letter to members) That is exactly what I wrote, yeah. And I hope you will take it that it is my party in the collective sense rather than my party as an individual. I believe when a Court , particularly a Court being instructed by the News of the World, comes after the internal documentation of a political party, similarly if they come after the funds of a trade union during a trades dispute, then everything should be done to defy that particular power, because I think it is an overuse of power; it is an abuse of democracy, not an expression of democracy.
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TOMMY SHERIDAN
(EXCERPT FROM UNSCRIPTED STATEMENT TO JURY)
What we have heard over the last three weeks has been a complete fabrication. I would call it the mother of all stitch-ups. as far as the News of the World is concerned, but the biggest disappointment I have is not the ones who were paid for their evidence, those who gave evidence and then had to admit under oath that they received money for their evidence, though that was bad enough.
But there are others who have given evidence, in my submission, who have given evidence from a political perspective to try and pursue a political battle that is under way within a political party, that I am sure each and every one of you are fed up hearing about, in terms of the evidence of factions and factional fighting. Unfortunately, you are going to hear other evidence about that because I have to rebut those who have lied about me.
I hope that you will reflect that the examination of me today, and I am in this dock principally, not solely, but principally because on the 14th of November the News of the World carried a five-page exclusive that was supposed to involve my kinky four-year affair with a party worker called Fiona McGuire, then followed that up on the 21st of November with another three pages, including a front page article. And I would plead with you as a jury to consider for a moment why it is that Mr Jones, in his examination of me today has not shown you one single phone call with Fiona McGuire, has questioned me about Fiona McGuire during the 3 or 4 hours that I have been in this witness box, he has questioned me for less than 15 minutes about Fiona McGuire, and then has proceeded to use as "evidence",
(in inverted commas) a set of very dodgy and distorted minutes. He has taken me through these dodgy and distorted minutes for nearly an hour this morning, an item that he managed to get hold of only when it was flagged up in May of this year - only a couple of months before this case started, a case that has been in the offing for 18 months.
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