News Group denied Supreme Court appeal on Tommy Sheridan defamation verdict

THE publishers of the now defunct News of the World have been refused permission to take the latest stage of the Tommy Sheridan defamation fight to the Supreme Court.

Lawyers for News Group have been told by appeal court judges in Edinburgh that they cannot approach the UK’s highest court to try to get the jury’s decision in the 2006 trial set aside.

Former socialist MSP Sheridan was awarded £200,000 in damages following a story in the tabloid.

But he was found guilty at a criminal trial four years later and served just over one year in prison. Sheridan has yet to receive the £200,000.

After hearing legal arguments from News Group’s QC Roddy Dunlop and Donald Findlay QC for Sheridan, Lady Paton, one of three judges who heard the case, said they could grant permission for an appeal to the Supreme Court only on a point of law.

She added: “As a result we refuse the application, but of course, it is always open to the applicants to go to London and plead directly to the Supreme Court”.

Earlier, Mr Dunlop QC said the application for an appeal to Supreme Court was “a matter of extreme public importance”.

He added: “The verdict complained of could have been reversed by a jury which knew the truth”. Mr Dunlop added: “No court can close its eyes. This case simply warrants the attention of the Supreme Court”.

Mr Findlay QC said the 2006 jury was manifestly entitled to do what it did.

He added that the damages which should have been paid a decade ago.

Mr Findlay described the attempt by News Group to appeal to the Supreme Court as “the last gasp of a dying man”.

After the hearing, Mr Sheridan said: “Yet again News Group had been in court attempting to pervert the course of justice.”