I see that, following Andy Coulson’s detention as part of a police investigation into perjury at the Tommy Sheridan, er, perjury trial, Tom Watson MP is up to his old tricks. To wit:
After the detention of Coulson, Tom Watson MP reiterated his claim that Sheridan’s perjury conviction was “unsound”.
He said: “Tommy Sheridan was convicted on an eight to six verdict of a jury in a Scottish court. Mr Sheridan lost his liberty and is still the subject of restrictions on his movement. “The detention of Andy Coulson further highlights why Mr Sheridan’s conviction was unsound. It is now abundantly clear that members of the jury were not in full possession of the facts. If they knew what the police now know, It seems impossible not to conclude that Mr Sheridan would be a free man.
“His conviction should be urgently reviewed. And if the First Minister had any honour, he would launch an immediate inquiry into illicit information techniques practiced by News International’s employees in Scotland.”
It should also be noted that Coulson has not been charged and is, at present, merely being questioned.
UPDATE: Coulson has now been charged with perjury. Even so, there’s no contradiction between thinking that the News of the World may have acted improperly, that Coulson could have committed perjury and that Sheridan was guilty and would have been found so whatever Coulson had said on the stand. It was the Comrades what done Tommy in. All that said, I’d also say that, at a time when the case was largely ignored in London, this blog predicted that the Sheridan trial could cause Coulson no end of trouble.
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