Tommy Sheridan: QC lambasts Sheridan case as "prostitution of Scots law": Law "lies in shame"

QC lambasts Sheridan case as "prostitution of Scots law": Law "lies in shame".

Ian Hamilton QC, one of Scotland's most respected jurists, has said the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini "prostituted" Scots law to appease press baron Rupert Murdoch, patron of the News of the World which lost £200,000 in damages to Tommy Sheridan, who has this afternoon been found guilty of perjury.

Evidence during the trial also said that several prosecution witnesses were paid by the newspaper.

"For the Lord Advocate to bring this case was a prostitution of Scots law," said Hamilton.

"The Lord Advocate is a member of the Scottish government and the government was the pimp. The aim was not to seek justice but to placate Rupert Murdoch and the News of the World."

In a withering assessment, Hamilton criticises the wisdom and impartiality of the Crown in bringing the case, claiming the case was motivated "entirely by a desire to placate a powerful press baron."

"Scots law used to boast that it protected the weak against the strong. Now it lies in shame," he added.

"Consider this. In every case where someone seeks damages there are two sides. Mr Sheridan won his civil case because the jury believed his witnesses and disbelieved those for the News of the World. In the eyes of the law and in the eyes of common sense these latter witnesses were now tainted. Yet they were then called by the Crown against the Sheridans. In a criminal case a jury must decide the issue of guilt beyond reasonable doubt. I can think of no better example of reasonable doubt, than a case which rests on the evidence of witnesses already discredited by another jury.

"In all my years as a lawyer I have never known a case where the successful side in a civil action was prosecuted for perjury. If anyone had to be prosecuted it was the side held to have lied under oath."

Hamilton says he has "no doubt the Lord Advocate was leant on by Rupert Murdoch’s employees."

"The case raises wider issues still. Who is responsible for the behaviour of our police? They spent thousands of man hours and over a million pounds on this investigation, while the gangster bosses go free. All the police do with the gangsters is make it hard for them to get contributory pensions: yet they spend prodigiously where a press baron is offended. Dear God! Has it come to this?

"Mrs Sheridan was then senior air hostess with BA in Glasgow. (She has since retired.) She had a collection of whisky miniatures exhibited freely in her living room. The police without further enquiry charged her with their theft, and leaked it to the press that they had done so. This attempt to blacken her character was an affront to justice.

"The prosecution of Mr and Mrs Sheridan was against every known principle. It was motivated entirely by a desire to placate a powerful press baron. Scots law used to boast that it protected the weak against the strong. Now it lies in shame."

Hamilton's remarks can be read in full, here.

P.S. Perhaps Ian Hamilton is the man Tommy needs to represent him at any appeal!

Link: The Firm