Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was jailed over phone hacking, has been cleared of perjury after the judge ruled his alleged lie in the witness box during a 2010 perjury trial of a Scottish politician was irrelevant.
Coulson became British prime minister David Cameron’s head of communications until he was forced to resign after the phone-hacking scandal in the wake of later-disproved allegations that the Sunday tabloid had deleted messages left on murder victim Milly Dowler’s mobile phone.
In 2010, he told the Glasgow trial of Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan he had no evidence News of the World journalists had hacked messages, though three years later he was convicted on conspiracy to do that.
Following Coulson’s conviction in London, the Scottish authorities decided to charge the former journalist – who served five months in the high-security Belmarsh prison – with perjury for the evidence he had given during the Sheridan trial.
Former reporters at the now-defunct tabloid gave evidence at his Glasgow trial for perjury that Coulson had complete knowledge of the hacking that was being undertaken, while one told the court he had shown transcripts of calls to Coulson.
Sheridan won a £200,000 defamation case in a blaze of publicity against the News of the World in 2006 after it had alleged he was an adulterer who went to swingers' clubs in Manchester. However, he was subsequently charged with perjury after video emerged.
Not relevant
Prosecutors had argued at the Sheridan trial that the issue of whether the News of the World had hacked mobiles
was not relevant to his innocence or guilt because there was no evidence it had hacked his mobile.
“The prosecution is riding two galloping horses and they are both going off in opposite directions,” Coulson’s barrister, Murdo MacLeod, had told trial judge Lord Burns, it emerged yesterday.
Appeal decision
On Monday, the judge agreed with the defence and acquitted Coulson, though his decision could not then be reported, because the judge had given the crown 48 hours to decide if it wanted to appeal the acquittal.
The crown decided against an appeal, though there is embarrassment within Scottish legal circles that a case against Coulson should be taken only for it to fail to meet basic legal requirements.
Speaking outside the court, Coulson, who has written a screenplay about his life, told reporters: “I am obviously delighted by the judge’s decision today. It was the right decision. I would like to thank him, I would like to thank the jury for their patience and I would like to thank my brilliant legal team.
“This prosecution was always wrong. I didn’t lie and the prosecution, in my view, was a gross waste of public money. I am just delighted that after four pretty testing years that my family and myself have finally had a good day.”
