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The Tommy Sheridan Trial

It's kind of a drag we only get one lifetime because it limits how much attention we can pay to things. I know this is a fantastic saga for instance, but I know next to nothing else. Can someone therefore please explain: would a conviction of AC for perjury mean that TS was wrongly convicted? Or would it benefit TS in some other way?
 
Personally, I think TS was as guilty as sin. However, if a witness perjured himself at the trial, that may well be good grounds for having the verdict overturned.

Rolfe.
 
-and (at least originally) guilty of nothing more than sin. Had he managed to STFU and take what he had coming from his wife, this huge waste of public money could have been avoided.
A plague on both their houses.
 
That is entirely correct. He didn't break any law that I know of in his various shenanigans. That started when he lied about it under oath in order to collect an eye-watering libel award from a newspaper.

And the really daft part is, I don't think his original motive was to collect an eye-watering amount of money by lying about what he'd done. I think it was braggadocio, when the paper published its allegations. "I'll sue for libel!" was a stratagem to be able to go on claiming he wasn't swinging, sleeping around, or whatever.

Dammit, if he'd just had the sense to keep his head down it would all have blown over years ago and the few people who remembered wouldn't care.

Rolfe.
 
If Coulson has lied, it doesn't follow that Sheridan didn't do so but I think Rolfe is right here: it might be enough to find the conviction unsound.

But would Tommy have to be tried again?

And then there's still the outstanding appeal by News Group against the original case.

This isn't over by a long chalk.
 
commandlinegamer said:
If Coulson has lied, it doesn't follow that Sheridan didn't do so but I think Rolfe is right here: it might be enough to find the conviction unsound.

But would Tommy have to be tried again?

And then there's still the outstanding appeal by News Group against the original case.

This isn't over by a long chalk.
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Thanks everyone. I really need to make more room for this one. It's a real cracker, even if most of the shooting is over.
 
Here's an interesting blog post on this development.

Coulson: crossing the Rubicon...

Lallands Peat Worrier said:
If a case against Coulson's is to be constructed, the relevance of his evidence to the Sheridan trial will clearly have to be demonstrated, whether or not he was entirely truthful or lying through his teeth throughout his evidence.
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Rolfe.
 
commandlinegamer said:
There's a link in the following site to the Prosecution Code which goes into more detail on when crimes are not pursued to trial.

http://www.copfs.gov.uk/about/deciding-whether-prosecute

ETA: Link was harder to find than I thought.

http://www.copfs.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Publications/Resource/Doc/13423/0000034.pdf
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I was looking at the English equivalent to that recently. The CPS code requires that the prospects of conviction be better than evens before moving on to the public interest considerations. I don't see the codes themselves as elucidating the differences in the two systems though. One thing I do see is reference to that marvel of Scottish legal culture - the Procurator Fiscal. What a wonderful job title!

I would be interested to know in what esteem the PF is held by both police and public north of the border. Down here, the CPS seems to have been an object of general loathing and contempt since it was born sometime in the 80s (I think) supposedly to make better charging decisions and reduce the burden of paperwork on the cops (picture hollow laugh emoticon).
 
Rolfe said:
Two words. Sutherland's Law.

Rolfe.
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Wow, now that's a blast from the past. Though I was watching Iain Cuthbertson only yesterday in The Ribos Operation.
anglolawyer said:
When's it on? I loved Dr F's casebook, especially the music.
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Sutherland's Law (season 1 at least) is out on DVD. Stg£9 from the BBC. A good show, made in the early/mid seventies.
 
Ha, I thought I would need a time machine but it turns out a £9 note will do.

We should have procurator fiscals down here imho. In fact, I want to be one. I wonder what it means? Are they tax collectors too? And what is a procurator? Are they supposed to procure something? Justice? Convictions? Facts? Truth?
 
Correction.

Procurators fiscal. Second guess is right, judging by the ones I've met.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
Correction.

Procurators fiscal. Second guess is right, judging by the ones I've met.

Rolfe.
Click to expand...

What's all this derived from Rolfe? I know the Scots were friendly with the French for a long time and putting the nouns and adjective the other way round looks suspiciously French to me. Or is this office a purely Scottish creation?

And yes, procurators fiscal, of course.
 
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