The News of the World received “calls galore” from people with new allegations about Tommy Sheridan’s lifestyle following his successful defamation action against the newspaper, a court has heard.

Bob Bird, editor of the tabloid in Scotland, said yesterday that callers had been “disgusted” by the trial verdict, with some giving the names of other women with whom Sheridan had allegedly been involved while married.

Sheridan and his wife Gail are accused of lying under oath during his 2006 case against the tabloid, which had published allegations about the former MSP’s private life.

Both deny all the charges against them.

The High Court in Glasgow yesterday heard claims from Sheridan that his victory had gone “straight to the top” of the News International organisation, and that Mr Bird was embarrassed by the verdict.

Andy Coulson, then UK editor of the News of the World, had been involved in negotiations over the £200,000 payment for a video allegedly capturing Sheridan confessing to visiting a swingers’ club. Sheridan has claimed the tape, which was obtained after the civil action, is a fake.

The message from the top of your organisation was to get Sheridan at any cost 
<cite>Tommy Sheridan</cite>

Sheridan asked Mr Bird: “How much money was Andy Coulson willing to spend to destroy me?”

Mr Bird replied: “We got calls galore from people giving us new leads, and that call about the tape came in.

“It never got to the stage that we thought of how many millions or thousands. It never got to that stage because we had a look at brilliant new evidence that proved you had lied in court.”

Mr Bird was later asked about claims that News International had spent the equivalent of two million dollars on the Sheridan story. He said that figure was a “guesstimate, a pretty wild one at that”, but admitted the story had cost a “huge amount”, particularly in lawyers’ bills.

Sheridan claimed Mr Bird had been “throwing money around” to get information on him.

Mr Bird said: “It was people ringing up, disgusted by the verdict, wanting to tell us what you were really like.”

He said the newspaper would have put its hands up and settled out of court if a mistake had been made, adding: “The fact that we went to court … is because we felt that we were in the right.”

The court also heard that Anvar Khan, a journalist who claims to have visited Cupid’s sex club in Manchester with Sheridan, was told by Mr Bird that she could “double her dosh” by getting Sheridan to admit to their alleged affair during a telephone conversation.

Sheridan put to the witness: “That was a devious form of entrapment.” Mr Bird claimed it was getting evidence.

Ms Khan refused to make the phonecall, the court heard, because she did not want to be the new “News of the World kiss-and-tell girl.”

Sheridan said: “She wouldn’t make the phonecall for £2000 because [she] knew full well that there was nothing to tell.”

Mr Bird said: “No, it ended up with 18 people all saying what she said.”

The court also heard that Fiona McGuire, who sold her story of an alleged four-year affair with Sheridan to the paper, also refused to make a similar phone call.

Sheridan said to Mr Bird: “You knew that the Fiona McGuire story would never stand up in court as it was simply untrue.”

Mr Bird replied: “We knew the Fiona McGuire story was substantially true. We had it for six months but didn’t think there was enough evidence to run it.”

The editor said it “fitted in as part of a jigsaw” given other things the paper had been told.

Sheridan put to the witness: “After the trial your shoddy dealing went into overdrive?”

Mr Bird said the paper went on to appeal a “gross miscarriage of justice”.

Sheridan said: “The message from the top of your organisation was to get Sheridan at any cost.” Mr Bird said that was not that case.

Sheridan continued: “Whether by legal or illegal means.” Mr Bird said that was not the case.

The trial continues.

 

The charges

The Sheridans, both 46, from Glasgow, are accused of lying under oath during his successful 2006 defamation action against the News of the World.

The indictment contains three charges in total, two of which are broken down into a number of sub-sections.

Sheridan denies lying to the courts during the case, which followed the newspaper’s claims that he was an adulterer who had visited a swingers’ club. It is alleged he made false statements as a witness in the defamation action on July 21, 2006.

He also denies another charge of attempting to persuade a witness to commit perjury shortly before the 23-day legal action got under way.

Gail denies making false statements on July 31, 2006, after being sworn in as a witness in the civil jury trial at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.