Reporting by James Doleman



A crowded press conference today heard from Aamer Anwar, Tommy Sheridan’s solicitor, and Tom Watson MP about a “dossier” of information they were handing over to Strathclyde police.

Amongst the documents it contained was; a page from the notebook of convicted investigator Glen Mulcaire which contained Tommy Sheridan’s personal details, including his mobile phone number and his “PIN code”, transcripts of evidence given by News of the World staff at last years perjury trial, and extracts from a “blue book” of instructions given to private detectives by News of the World journalists including Rebecca Brooks the current Chief Executive of News International (UK).

These documents, Mr Anwar claimed, showed that the jury in the Tommy Sheridan trial had, intentionally or unintentionally, been misled.

Included in the dossier given to police, but not the copy passed to the assembled journalists, was a document received by the solicitor nine months ago, which Mr Anwar claims list the names of “scores of Scots”, ranging from “football players to murder victims”, whose phones had also been hacked by Glen Mulcaire. Mr Anwar refused to reveal any of the names of the people involved, for “confidentiality reasons” or the source of the document. He did however call on Strathclyde police to inform the alleged victims and investigate their cases.

Mr Anwar also distributed a record of the evidence given by Bob Bird, Scottish editor of the News of the World, to the commission charged with discovering evidence for the Sheridan trial. At that hearing Mr Bird had stated that email exchanges between News International executives relating to the Sheridan case had been “lost” when they were archived in Mumbai, India and therefore could not be used in evidence. This, Mr Anwar said appeared to have been untrue as the emails had been discovered this year at News International’s Wapping headquarters. This he claimed has also led to the full facts of the case being concealed from the defence and, ultimately the jury.

Tom Watson MP then addressed the press. He said he had left the “media storm” in London because he believed the concealment of the emails and the extent of News of the World’s phone hacking may have “influenced the jury” adding that “Tommy Sheridan may be an innocent man”. This, Mr Watson stated was more important to highlight than any press interview in London.

Both men ended the conference by calling on Strathclyde police to conduct a “robust investigation” into possible perjury at the Tommy Sheridan trial and, as Tommy Sheridan was an MSP at the time of the alleged hacking, for the Scottish parliament to urgently consider undertaking an enquiry. They then left to deliver their dossier to Strathclyde police.

Shortly after the press conference concluded it was announced that the News of the World is to be closed.

James Doleman authored the daily blog reporting of the HMA v Sheridan trial in 2010.