Byrne charged with perjury

Reluctant Hero · Byrne charged with perjury

Former MSP charged with perjury

A former MSP who gave evidence on behalf of Tommy Sheridan during his defamation case against the News of the World has been charged with perjury.
Lothian and Borders Police confirmed that Rosemary Byrne, 59, was arrested, charged and released on Tuesday.

The force said a report was being sent to the procurator fiscal.

Mr Sheridan, the former leader of the SSP and Glasgow MSP, was charged with perjury last December in connection with the damages case he won in 2006.

The News of the World was ordered to pay £200,000 to the left-wing politician over a series of lurid allegations about his private life.

'Political witch-hunt'

However, during the trial, defamation case witnesses gave conflicting evidence about the circumstances of the allegations.

Two months after the proceedings concluded, prosecutors ordered police to carry out a criminal investigation into allegations of perjury.

A spokesman for Solidarity confirmed that Ms Byrne had been charged with perjury on Tuesday.

Jim Monaghan added: "We consider this to be nothing more than a political witch-hunt."

He said Ms Byrne would not be speaking publicly on the matter, but added that she had co-operated fully with the police investigation.

"She [Ms Byrne] went voluntarily to the police station, was interviewed and cautioned and was released afterwards," said Mr Monaghan.

Ms Byrne is co-convenor of Solidarity, the socialist party formed by Tommy Sheridan after he left the SSP.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7245995.stm

Shagpile

No worries! All she need do is admit that she told lies, then the Electorial Commission will rule that she had taken 'all reasonable steps' to tell the truth. EASY!

Reluctant Hero

Looks like this story hs got a lot of mileage left in it yet.

Sheridan's wife and father-in-law are apparently going to be charged next.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7248076.stm

George

I wonder how this will play with the average punter given the recent charade with Wendy Alexander.

I think that Sheridan could find himself an unwitting martyr to the independence cause. It is my own view that he has considerable sympathy amongst those who are rarely heard.

Reluctant Hero

I would agree that Sheridan would be seen as a martyr, but not necesaarily to the independence cause

iainmhor

Anthropos

iainmhor

A favourable public, albeit a minority, will mean that Tam has an audience in future for his pro independence and socialist views. He may choose to harness this support politically in future.

Aye the facts should emerge, but many will see Tommy, particularly if sent down, as being a victim of the injustice system. After all in the working class theres plenty of experience of the state and crime from both ends.

George

Red Justice

Unprecedented for cases of perjury to follow a civil action best the political policing ends and any further action against socialists is dropped. The fiscal can still decide whether to proceed with the matter. When it comes to imperialist law Murdoch will be aware what side his bread is buttered on as all tycoons do.

Victory to the working class!

socialism and independence!

Aventinian

Rinty

I cant and won't say much on this, due to my close involvement but I think I should caution that being charged is not the same thing as going to court or being guilty.

Dave Coull

Isn't it strange how British so-called "justice" works. Wendy Alexander, Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, is caught red-handed in a frankly corrupt act and reluctantly forced to admit she has broken the law, but nobody, least of all the police, is interested in doing anything about this. Yet huge amounts of police time and public money can be devoted to pursuing somebody who is seen as a thorn in the flesh of the establishment.

George wrote "The public don't care whether he attended this sex club or not".

Personally, I couldn't care less. However, while I don't care about whether an MSP attended a sex club or not, I do care about whether folk are telling the truth or not. If Tommy was lying, then he certainly won't be a hero to me. But I agree that a lot of folk (me included) would regard any prison sentence as being the revenge of a bunch of sanctimonious hypocrites on somebody who wasn't seen as part of their rotten establishment.

"there are many who feel that this particular newspaper got what it deserved" - well regardless of the truth of the Tommy matter it certainly deserved to lose at least a couple of hundred thousand quid. However, I would say that, in addition, what it also deserves is for the private lives of everybody concerned with the News Of The World, from that slimy billionaire hypocrite Rupert Murdoch down to the most junior reporter, to be subjected to the kind of searching scrutiny they apply to others, and the sleazy details discovered by this to be presented in the most unfavourable light possible through the pages of rival newspapers.

George

thebauer

[quote="Rinty"]I cant and won't say much on this, due to my close involvement but I think I should caution that being charged is not the same thing as going to court or being guilty.[/quote]

i wholeheartedly agree.

rosalittlehooses

Did Rosemary Byrne lie in court? She is the subject of this thread.
Did she voluntarily go to the police or was she given the choice to be interviewed at the cop shop or in her in own home?I mean, why would she voluntarily give an interview? Did all the others who have been charged lie too? The cops think so and must believe they have enough evidence to demonstrate in court that that the 7 charged, so far, have lied. They know more than we do. Don't you think?

Who are average punters btw?.

I don't think people care that much. Not even about Wendy Alexander, or any other politcal party or poltician.

Significant minority? The people who don't or didn't vote? The people who voted for the SNP instead of a socialist party?

When a socialist is accused by one organ of the media of stepping out of line, the rest of the media are going to jump on the bandwaggon , so will the state.

Does that surprise us?

Was this a plot by George Bush and MI5 and Rupert Murdoch? Was the Duke of Edinburgh involved,?

Why does Solidarity want to spend even more money on a public enquiry?
Tax payers money. Does Solidarity think that Public inquiries are democratic?

The trial mght not happen.

But if the state and all the other alleged conspiritors have expended lots of the resources they have to this issue, I suspect the trial will go ahead.
The public interest? In the short term, don't think that matters to the state. In the long term, I don't think that matters much either.

Socialists take the long view. A hundred years from now I think this will be a footnote. I'm maybe being genorous here.

Rinty

This is a legal precedent in Scotland. There has never been a perjury investigation follwing a civil case in Scotland and the resources allocated are also a first for a civil case and more than the 'cash for honours' enquiry.

Alan Cochrane expressed concerns re the investigation in today's telegraph, concerns he claims are shared by the legal establishment.

"This column and Tommy Sheridan, the self-styled saviour of the proletariat, haven't had a lot in common during our nine or so years of acquaintance.

I may have laughed at his jokes and admired his turn of phrase from time to time but his working-class martyr act has never struck this observer as anything other than self-aggrandisement.

Mr Healy [left] and Mrs Sheridan arrive for questioning with Mr Sheridan, who was charged with perjury in December

However, as the weeks, months and now years grind on in the seemingly interminable inquiry following his court case victory against the News of the World, a fact has to be faced. It is this: by any standard or criteria of fair play, Mr Sheridan is getting a raw deal.

I say this not out of any belief in his innocence or guilt in relation to the charges of perjury which have now been levelled against both him and six others of his closest family, friends and associates. (And frankly, and I mean this, I have no idea on that score one way or the other.)

No, my concern is about the treatment meted out to him by the forces of law and order - and in particular the Crown Office and Lothians and Borders Police.

And what's more, I'm not the only one who thinks so. Senior members of Scotland's legal fraternity, including some with the closest of links to the Scottish Executive, share my view that the Sheridan case is beginning to show this country's legal system in a very poor light.

The latest instalment in this saga occurred at Gayfield Square police station in Edinburgh on Tuesday night when Mr Sheridan's wife, Gail, was charged with perjury after being interviewed for no less than six hours.

Also charged on Tuesday, although he had to submit to only four hours of questioning, was Mrs Sheridan's 71-year-old father, Gus Healy. Previously, four other former political associates of Mr Sheridan, including Rosemary Bryrne, who was a Scottish Socialist Party MSP until May's Holyrood election, have also been charged with perjury.

All of the charges relate to August 2006 when Mr Sheridan won £200,000 in damages after successfully suing the tabloid newspaper for defamation following lurid allegations it made about his private life.

The newspaper appealed against the jury's verdict while Lothians and Borders Police launched an investigation after the trial judge, Lord Turnbull, said that someone in the case must have lied, which meant it was "almost inevitable" that a perjury inquiry would take place.

Given the judge's comments, the police had to pursue the matter, but, as BBC Scotland solicitor Alistair Bonnington has said: "Lies are told every day and in every case in courts across Scotland. What happens about that?

rosalittlehooses

Why have they been charged? To pressure someone to say, what?
You think that more will be charged. With what?

I think Scotland justice system may be viewed in a very poor light because of the way it has dealt with Wendy Alexander, who currently has political power and authority rather than Solidarity members who used to have some limited, political power and authority.

Lets recap here. One of the current convenors of solidarity took the NOTW to court and now the crown might prosecute a case against the same convenor maybe both convenors, maybe other members as well.

Do you really think the whole Scottish justice system could fall apart?

That would be quite ironic given that Rosemary Byrne as well as current SSP convenor Colin Fox each sat on the two Justice committees.

'Of course, perjury is a serious offence and, where it is suspected, it must be proceeded against with the utmost vigour.'

Alan Cochrane wrote the above.

Perjury had to be suspected, didn't it.?

If the charged are relaxed, they are relaxed. If you have no worries then you can stay relaxed too.

Que sera, sera.

Rinty

"Lets recap here. One of the current convenors of solidarity took the NOTW to court and now the crown might prosecute a case against the same convenor maybe both convenors, maybe other members as well.

Do you really think the whole Scottish justice system could fall apart?"

My remarks on the justice system falling apart, as you know, is in relation to the new precedent set by this case. It is now possible that, if a member of the public makes a complaint, then we will see a perjury investigation into every case in a Scottish court. Assuming that you dont think Tommy is being treated unfairly, anyone involved should expect the same level of police resources to be used. If that happens the courts will crumble under the weight.

"That would be quite ironic given that Rosemary Byrne as well as current SSP convenor Colin Fox each sat on the two Justice committees."

Er, yes we know, that is why their is an investigation in the first place. The former Tory MSP Brian Montieth complained to police because Fox was on the justice committee. Thats why the investigation was launched. Try to keep up.

"'Of course, perjury is a serious offence and, where it is suspected, it must be proceeded against with the utmost vigour.'
Alan Cochrane wrote the above."

Selective editing: Alan Cochrane also wrote in the same piece:

"by any standard or criteria of fair play, Mr Sheridan is getting a raw deal."

and
"And what's more, I'm not the only one who thinks so. Senior members of Scotland's legal fraternity, including some with the closest of links to the Scottish Executive, share my view that the Sheridan case is beginning to show this country's legal system in a very poor light."

Perjury was suspected in the case. But that means that the whole evidence should have been under suspicion and not just the evidence of Tommy and his supporters. Did we see witnesses on the other side have their home ransacked? Was any of the SSP women humiliated by police in a cell as Gail Sheridan was?

Tommy Sheridan won the case which means that the most likely cases of perjury would be on those whose case was found to be wrong in court. yet no similar action was taken against them.

It ios my opinion that last weeks arests were not the culmination of gathering of evidence but instead they were a last gasp, desperate, effort from an investigation that is going nowhere. The 'presure' was in a vain hope that someone would offere a confession and bring up fresh eveidence.

If the evidence was there then the PF could have proceded by now. As Alan Cochrane pints out thisis not the case, the investigation continues. It is now two months since Tommy was vcharged, why are we not seeing the PF proceed on the evidence that was given to them by Police after Tommys charges.

Could it be that the PF said it wasnt enough and the police then made the arrests to try to find more? If after 18 months, 20 police officers cant find enough to go to court what happens next?

"You think that more will be charged. With what?"

I think that at least two more people will be charged with perjury possibly four more.

George

That widely respected organ (The Scotsman) is reporting that Sheridan's wife has been suspended by B.A. over an alleged theft of some alcohol miniatures.

This episode beggars belief, are we really to believe that she would steal something so insignificant.

I think that the establishment are making a huge miscalculation in thinking that this kind of witchunt will have the same effect in Scotland as it usually does down South.

rosalittlehooses

It's not likely that every allegation of perjury will result in an investigation.

This is a peculiar case involving 6 people who were MSP's, where two of them sat on justice committees and an investigation into perjury was called for by yet another MSP, after a civil case initiated by one of the 6 MSP's. This MSP won a case against a newspaper and then threatened to destroy those who had contradicted his version of events.

It possibe that had the MSP who initiated the defamation case not been an MSP or that the other 5 MSP's involved not been MSP's or sat on Justice committees there would have been no further intervention.
But who can tell.

The MSP who intitiated the defamation case could have chosen not to, after all he only really had to convince his spouse of his version of events. Not a jury, the membership of his party, or the party's executive to support him or the voters in his consituency or the wider Scottish electorate.

He used his judgement and made his choice.

He won his case and left the party. He lost his seat as an MSP, as did the others, resulting in sections of the public losing 6 socialist MSP's and is now facing a possible criminal trial and an appeal by the newspaper.

Being a socialist he would more than likely have been aware that the state would use the opportunity if contradictory evidence was suspected to persue a legal case with all of the unpleasantneses that would entail.

He made his judgement and made his choice.

He continues to use that same judgement and maintain his choice.

There are often unintended consequences but as a socialist he would have judged that there would be.

He made his judgement and made his choice.

Without having access to the reports of the police to the PF it is impossible to know why those who have been charged have been charged and not others. Maybe the PF does want more evidence against the 7 already charged, maybe the PF wants more evidence agianst more people. Maybe there will be different charges yet to come, maybe as you have said the PF hopes that someone will under pressure will offer a confession or offer up fresh evidence, probably as you say, a vain hope.

We will all have to wait and see, it is pointless speculating and if there is no case, I'm pretty sure there will be many questions raised concerning the resources used.

The PF will judge and chose.

The 7 charged made their judgements and made their choices. Their advisors used their judgement and chose to advise.

History will judge everyone one involved. By then most if not all will be dead and buried.

Que sera, sera.