Ex-Cameron aide held on perjury suspicion
Source: Agencies |
May 31, 2012, Thursday
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THE former top media adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron was detained yesterday on suspicion of perjury in the trial of a flamboyant ex-Scottish lawmaker - the latest case tied to allegations of wrongdoing by British tabloid newspapers.
Andy Coulson, 44, was detained by Scottish police at his home in London over an accusation related to testimony he gave in a high-profile case at Glasgow's High Court in 2010, when politician Tommy Sheridan was himself convicted of offering a false account in a legal hearing.
Sheridan had won a lawsuit against the now-defunct News of The World tabloid over its claim that he was embroiled in a sex-and-drugs scandal, but was later jailed for three years after a jury at the 2010 trial ruled that he had committed perjury when he sued the newspaper.
Coulson was editor of the tabloid when stories about Sheridan were published, and working as Cameron's communications director when he gave evidence to the 2010 trial.
The ex-aide, who left his post at the News of The World in 2007 after a reporter and a private investigator were jailed over phone-hacking offenses, told the court that he didn't "accept there was a culture of phone hacking" at the tabloid.
He insisted that he had ordered his reporters to work within the law and said that police officers were not paid for information.
Those assurances have since been called into question by revelations of widespread illegal behavior at the paper and allegations - denied by Coulson - that he approved and encouraged the shady practices.
Cameron has insisted he had been right to offer Coulson a "second chance" by making him his media chief - but the ex-aide's resignation early last year, his arrest by London police investigating phone hacking, and yesterday's detention by Scottish police have raised questions about the British leader's judgment.
The prime minister's ties to both Coulson and their mutual friend Rebekah Brooks, an ex-chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International, have put the phone-hacking scandal at Cameron's doorstep.
Sheridan, who was freed from jail after serving a year of his sentence - usual practice for crimes of that type in Scotland - said he now hopes to have his conviction quashed.
"We were led to believe by Mr Coulson and his acolytes at News International during my trial and the initial phone-hacking investigations that the problem was a rogue reporter," Sheridan told reporters. "Well, I think we all know now that there is no bad apple in the barrel. What there is is a rotten orchard full of bad apples."
Andy Coulson, 44, was detained by Scottish police at his home in London over an accusation related to testimony he gave in a high-profile case at Glasgow's High Court in 2010, when politician Tommy Sheridan was himself convicted of offering a false account in a legal hearing.
Sheridan had won a lawsuit against the now-defunct News of The World tabloid over its claim that he was embroiled in a sex-and-drugs scandal, but was later jailed for three years after a jury at the 2010 trial ruled that he had committed perjury when he sued the newspaper.
Coulson was editor of the tabloid when stories about Sheridan were published, and working as Cameron's communications director when he gave evidence to the 2010 trial.
The ex-aide, who left his post at the News of The World in 2007 after a reporter and a private investigator were jailed over phone-hacking offenses, told the court that he didn't "accept there was a culture of phone hacking" at the tabloid.
He insisted that he had ordered his reporters to work within the law and said that police officers were not paid for information.
Those assurances have since been called into question by revelations of widespread illegal behavior at the paper and allegations - denied by Coulson - that he approved and encouraged the shady practices.
Cameron has insisted he had been right to offer Coulson a "second chance" by making him his media chief - but the ex-aide's resignation early last year, his arrest by London police investigating phone hacking, and yesterday's detention by Scottish police have raised questions about the British leader's judgment.
The prime minister's ties to both Coulson and their mutual friend Rebekah Brooks, an ex-chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International, have put the phone-hacking scandal at Cameron's doorstep.
Sheridan, who was freed from jail after serving a year of his sentence - usual practice for crimes of that type in Scotland - said he now hopes to have his conviction quashed.
"We were led to believe by Mr Coulson and his acolytes at News International during my trial and the initial phone-hacking investigations that the problem was a rogue reporter," Sheridan told reporters. "Well, I think we all know now that there is no bad apple in the barrel. What there is is a rotten orchard full of bad apples."
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