Sheridan fails in bid for £200,000

Disgraced socialist politician Tommy Sheridan has failed in a legal bid to secure an extra £200,000 from the publishers of the now defunct News of the World.

The former Scottish Socialist Party leader won a £200,000 defamation action against the newspaper in August 2006 after it published false allegations about his love life.

He instructed lawyer Gordon Dangerfield to go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh last year to argue that he was entitled to another £200,000 payment from News Group Newspapers. Mr Dangerfield wanted judge Lord Turnbull to award the sum of be paid because journalists at the publication broke the law by hacking his mobile phone.

The solicitor advocate argued the publishers should be punished for allowing its employees to use illegal methods to acquire information about Mr Sheridan.

He said his client, who was jailed in 2011 for committing perjury during the defamation action, had also committed wrongdoing – but it was at “many levels below” the conduct of the News of the World.

But yesterday, in a judgment issued at the Court of Session, Lord Turnbull refused to grant the extra payment to be paid to Sheridan.

The judge allowed Sheridan to receive the £200,000 payment for defamation – which News Group Newspapers has already paid – and also awarded the costs in his favour.