Ex-Downing Street spin doctor goes on trial for perjury

FORMER NEWS Of The World editor Andy Coulson has gone on trial accused of lying under oath during the trial of former socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan.

Coulson, 47, a former director of communications for the Prime Minister, denies committing perjury during the 2010 case at the High Court in Glasgow.

The current trial, at the High Court in Edinburgh, formally got under way yesterday, with the selection of the jury of nine men and six women.

The case is due to last about four weeks, with the first witness expected to be called next week.

Addressing the jury, judge Lord Burns told them there has been a “great deal of information” about Coulson, Mr Sheridan and the subject matter of the charge in the media and on the internet.

But he reminded the 15-strong panel of their oath to try the ac- cused “solely and exclusively” upon the evidence they will hear from the witness box.

The court heard – in evidence agreed by the Crown and the defence – that, following publication of a series of articles about him in the News Of The World, Mr Sheridan raised a defamation action in Scotland’s Court of Session against the newspaper’s publishers, News Group International.

The jury in the subsequent 2006 defamation action decided that the politician had been defamed by the newspaper and it was ordered to pay him £200,000 in damages.

The court also heard that Mr Sheridan’s perjury trial at the High Court in Glasgow was in respect of evidence he gave in the earlier defamation action.

During the 2010 trial, Mr Sheridan dismissed his lawyers and conducted his own defence. Coulson was called as a defence witness by Mr Sheridan over two days.

Prosecutors allege that Coulson, from Kent, made false claims on December 9 and 10 2010 after being sworn in as a witness.

One of the allegations on the indictment is that Coulson falsely stated that before the arrest of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and News of the World jour- nalist Clive Goodman on August 8 2006, he did not know that Goodman was involved in phone hacking, and did so together with Mulcaire.

It claims he falsely said he did not know that payments were made to Mulcaire by Goodman and that he did not know of Mulcaire’s “illegal activities”.

Coulson pleads not guilty to the allegations against him. The trial continues on Tuesday.