Former SSP leader rejects all fresh claims and urges appeal court to throw out calls that they overturn his £200,000 damages
TOMMY Sheridan is facing fresh evidence' that he cheated on his wife and confessed to visiting a swingers' club, according to legal documents lodged in court relating to an appeal by the News Of The World.
The Solidarity leader's wife Gail has also been accused of giving inaccurate information in court by the tabloid newspaper that is appealing Sheridan's successful defamation case last year.
In his own legal response, the left-wing politician has denied all the allegations and called on the appeal court to reject the "alleged new evidence" in its entirety.
The latest claims form the basis of the News Of The World's appeal against the 7-4 jury verdict in Sheridan's favour last year. He sued the red-top after it alleged he was an adulterer who had cheated on his wife with a former call girl.
In a five-week hearing, jurors heard allegations about the former Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) leader's sex life and claims that he had attended a swingers' club in Manchester.
Sheridan denied all the allegations and after a defammation trial a jury found in his favour and awarded him £200,000 in damages. But now a document lodged in court by the newspaper has laid out a fresh set of allegations about his private life which, it claims, prove the need for a new trial.
One of the claims is that Sheridan had sex with a female SSP party worker who was not mentioned during the original trial. Another is that Gail Sheridan, who gave evidence in support of her husband, did not give accurate testimony.
Mrs Sheridan claimed in court that one of her husband's accusers, Katrine Trolle, had told her at an SSP conference in 2005 that the News Of The World had offered Trolle money to allege an affair.
The legal document lodged at the Court of Session claims to have evidence that Trolle did not attend or sign in at the party conference in question.
The newspaper also claims that a woman who allegedly worked at the Cupid's sex club in Manchester, and who has been identified and named as "Louise", also had sex with Sheridan. It also claims that a Birmingham prostitute who was alleged to have been at a sex party in Glasgow - which the tabloid claimed Sheridan had attended - has been "traced by the police".
Other claims in the newspaper's court document include the alleged existence of a tape which claims to reveal Sheridan "admitting" to visiting Cupid's.
The existence of hand-written notes, produced after a notorious SSP meeting in 2004 at which Sheridan was also alleged to have confessed to visiting the sex club, has been cited as evidence.
In his own court response, Sheridan has rejected every one of the newspaper's reasons why the "alleged new evidence" could not be produced during the original trial, and has stated that the fresh charges "replicate" the original allegations which were rejected during the trial. The tabloid should have "duly and diligently" prepared its case before it tried to "ruin an honest man's reputation".
In particular, Sheridan "strenously denies" the existence of the tape referred to by the News Of The World.
The next court hearing is scheduled for later this month, when the tabloid is expected to try to defer any new trial. It believes the current police investigation into last year's case, which focuses on allegations of perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, overlaps its appeal.
Tommy Sheridan did not return calls yesterday. Gail Sheridan said: "I don't wish to speak to you."
