Thomas Sheridan Against News Group Newspapers Limited
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judge | Lord Turnbull |
| Neutral Citation | [2018] CSOH 20 |
| Date | 08 March 2018 |
| Docket Number | A765/04 |
| Court | Court of Session |
| Published date | 08 March 2018 |
OUTER HOUSE, COURT OF SESSION
[2018] CSOH 20
A765/04
OPINION OF LORD TURNBULL
In the cause
THOMAS SHERIDAN
Pursuer
against
NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LIMITED
Defender
Pursuer: Dangerfield (sol adv); Archer Coyle Solicitors
Defender: Dunlop QC et Campbell; Ledingham Chalmers LLP
Minuter: Hamilton; Gillespie Macandrew LLP
8 March 2018
Introduction
[1] On 14 November 2004, the defenders published an article in the News of the World
Sunday Newspaper (“the News of the World”) in which various allegations were made
about the pursuer’s private life, including an allegation that he had conducted an affair with
a woman by the name of Fiona McGuire. The pursuer raised an action of defamation and
the civil trial which ensued concluded on 4 August 2006, when the jury pronounced a
verdict in his favour assessing damages at £200,000. A little over 11 years later, on
30 August 2017, the pursuer enrolled a motion in terms of Rule of Court 37.10 seeking to
have the verdict applied. Allied to that motion was an application for interest to be included
2
in the decree at the rate of 8% per annum from 14 November 2004, or such later date as
might seem proper, and a motion that the pursuer be awarded the expenses of the action,
save as already awarded.
Background
[2] These motions comprise the concluding chapter in a remarkable litigation, in which a
then Member of the Scottish Parliament, sought to sue what was at one time said to be the
highest selling English language newspaper in the world. A publication which, it was said
in evidence before me, “prided itself in exposing hypocrisy”. In order to weigh the
competing arguments in their proper context, and given the time which has passed, it will
be useful to recap some of the history of the case and the events associated with it. It all
began with the article published by the defenders on 14 November 2004.
[3] The summons for defamation was signeted on 23 November 2004. The civil jury trial
began on 4 July 2006 and lasted for five weeks. Throughout the course of the trial the jurors
were exposed to an extraordinary array of witnesses, including; Members of the
Scottish Parliament, journalists, politicians and authors, all of many hues and descriptions,
investigators, news editors, party activists and others who had simply been caught up in the
whirlwind of ever increasing animosity and contempt which each of the parties held for the
other. Bitter exchanges were swapped across the courtroom between the pursuer and many of
his former colleagues. Some were accused of lying about admissions they testified to hearing
the pursuer make at a political meeting. These included the witness Alan McCombes, who
earlier in the proceedings had been sent to prison for refusing to comply with a court order
requiring him to release to the defenders minutes of a Scottish Socialist Party Meeting which
undermined the pursuer. The case captured the interest of the public over the weeks of its
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Thomas Sheridan Against Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
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