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The Tommy Sheridan Trial

Cross examining editor, Bob Bird, Sheridan said: "Ten years ago you were at the heart of Wapping."
He went on: "You were part of the illegal culture of phone tapping that has been widely criticised."
Mr Bird replied: "No I was not."
Sheridan asked: "You are now the editor of the Scottish News of the World. Is it your position that the illegal culture of Wapping is not practised here in Scotland?"
Mr Bird said: "I don't think there was any such culture in Wapping and it's certainly not conducted in Scotland."

Silence?
Is that really the best Tommy could come up with over the weekend to discredit this guy? He should have watched Garrow's Law (the true story of the guy who invented, 'innocent until proven guilty') last night for some class tips.
 
Blogiston said:
Cross examining editor, Bob Bird, Sheridan said: "Ten years ago you were at the heart of Wapping."
He went on: "You were part of the illegal culture of phone tapping that has been widely criticised."
Mr Bird replied: "No I was not."
Sheridan asked: "You are now the editor of the Scottish News of the World. Is it your position that the illegal culture of Wapping is not practised here in Scotland?"
Mr Bird said: "I don't think there was any such culture in Wapping and it's certainly not conducted in Scotland."

Silence?
Is that really the best Tommy could come up with over the weekend to discredit this guy? He should have watched Garrow's Law (the true story of the guy who invented, 'innocent until proven guilty') last night for some class tips.
Click to expand...

To be fair: though TS has been studying for a law degree, I don't think he's actually been called to the bar yet.
 
Hey- did you hear about the Pope in Edinburgh? He's met by the Queen at Holyrood.
The Queen says- "Good evening, your Pope. You'll have had your tea?"
 
Mr Bird replied: "No, but we did not have any photos of you at Cupid's (sex club) but you were there."
Mr Sheridan continued quizzing Mr Bird, but then appeared to become emotional as he referred to his wife.
He asked: "What we do know Mr Bird, we know that I was married (at the time) to a stunning woman I had known since the age of 13, don't we?"

When all other rational devices have been tried to get your way, without success, then try an irrational approach - like feign an emotional breakdown. What will the jury make of this? Rational inquisition may not convince a jury but at least they'll give you credit for effort. I would think it would be difficult for a person who is perceived as assertive, confident and composed to be able to pull this off and not be seen as just cynically trying to manipulate the feelings of the jury.
 
Will Mr. Sheridan claim a mistrial due to the fact that his legal representation was incompetent ?
 
Soapy Sam said:
Hey- did you hear about the Pope in Edinburgh? He's met by the Queen at Holyrood.
The Queen says- "Good evening, your Pope. You'll have had your tea?"
Click to expand...

Ha. I've heard that people from Edinburgh are very mean - but mostly they are English. And the people from the west of Scotland are very warm and don't wear tartan.
 
Earlier, Sheridan told Mr Bird the paper knew his wife was pregnant at the time of the story but decided to "print this utter tripe" regardless.
The ex-MSP went on: "You had no sense of responsibility to the health and wellbeing of my wife."
Mr Bird replied: "You were the one causing pain, putting her through all sorts of things behind her back." He said it was not the paper's "fault" Sheridan had allegedly been "unfaithful".
What next? He'll be claiming that their human rights were violated because things were made awkward for them by the truth. Everyone's jumping on the ECHR compliance band-wagon these days - why not Tommy too?
 
A "PSYCHIC agony aunt" warned Tommy Sheridan that the News of the World had him under "24/7" surveillance, the former MSP's perjury trial heard yesterday.
Jurors were shown emails sent to Sheridan by Yasemin Urquhart, who wrote a column for the paper under the pen name Ruth the Truth.
The emails were shown yesterday to the editor of the Scottish News of the World, Bob Bird, who was giving evidence for a fourth day.
Ruth the Truth contacted Sheridan in June 2006, a month before the defamation case, the perjury jury heard.
The psychic claimed two prostitutes and some SSP members would give evidence for the newspaper in the defamation hearing And she told Sheridan she feared her "family would suffer" if she was discovered as the source of information.

Sheridan asked Bird: "Do you have any idea why she would indicate that I was under surveillance and that you were aware of it?" Bird: "None whatsoever." Sheridan: "So it appears I am not the only one that claims I was under surveillance?" Bird: "Two people - you and the psychic agony aunt."
Sheridan: "Aware of any other occasion when she has made up tales about people?" Bird: "I am not, no."
Bird added: "As a psychic agony aunt, she did make a lot of predictions that did not come to be true."

This trial has everything - now a psychic's email predictions are admissible evidence!
 
Blogiston said:
This trial has everything - now a psychic's email predictions are admissible evidence!
Click to expand...

Mmm not really predictions though are they? She's giving evidence as a former employee of the newspaper that was supposed to be keeping him under surveillance, and my impression is that the emails were feeding him information that she'd picked up around the office, not something she'd seen in her crystal ball.

Bird is asked if she made up stories about people, and he pretty much says "No, other than the psychic agony aunt stuff". Which is actually not a bad endorsement.
 
Perhaps I'm overly naive, or can't read properly, but this confusesme - I'd quite like to read some of the court transcripts. For instance.

Blogiston said:
Cross examining editor, Bob Bird, Sheridan said: "Ten years ago you were at the heart of Wapping."
He went on: "You were part of the illegal culture of phone tapping that has been widely criticised."
Click to expand...


to which the reply was

Blogiston said:
Mr Bird replied: "No I was not."
Click to expand...


Surely the reply should have been - 'that's not a question, it's a statement'
 
I have to say, this show is the best thing on TV right now....

Except maybe Grand Designs, Architect...! [/private joke]

Rolfe.
 
She recognised Mr Sheridan at the swinger's club because of his publicity during the Poll Tax protests.
Pamela Tucker then told the former Socialist MSP's perjury trial at the High Court in Glasgow she later invited Sheridan and a group of his friends back to the flat she was staying in for a cup of tea before he went home.

On reading that, I'm proud to be British ! - Roman orgies finished with drunken debauchery, Californian one's end with coke snorting (according to Californication) - but British one's end with....a cup of tea.
 
Oh, wow. I heard it here first.

[Rolfe rushes to get home and watch the news entertainment.]
 
I hear Tommy Sheridan has formed a new political party, deciding on the name Solidarity Confinement.
 
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