FORMER MSP Tommy Sheridan has lost his final bid to overturn his perjury conviction.
The ex-leader of the Scottish Socialist Party was refused leave to appeal to the UK Supreme Court, ending a 14-year legal saga that started with one of Holyrood’s greatest scandals.
Three justices refused his application as it did “not raise an arguable point of law”.
The decision was taken in February but has only just been made public.
It followed Mr Sheridan’s previous failure to have the Scottish Criminal Review Commission review his 2010 conviction for lying in court.
The case goes back to 2004 when Mr Sheridan resigned as leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, which then had six MSPs, and sued the News of the World for defamation.
The paper had printed a series of stories about the Glasgow firebrand, accusing him of “lewd and immoral acts”.
In 2006, Mr Sheridan won £200,000 damages in a civil case at the Court of Session, which heard he had visited a sex club in Manchester.
However he was then prosecuted for perjury and sentenced to three years in prison after a 12-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
The scandal split the Scottish Socialists, with Mr Sheridan forming his own Solidarity party, and the far Left losing all six of its MSPs.
Mr Sheridan, 56, appealed against his conviction in March 2015, and again in June 2016, with both applications being refused.
His last resort was the appeal to the UK Supreme Court, which has now refused as well.
Despite his conviction, Mr Sheridan was allowed to keep his £200,000 defamation award and in 2018 won another £176,000 in interest.
He currently works for the Kremlin-funded propaganda outlet Sputnik.
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