Last door shut on Sheridan perjury conviction challenge

Former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan has failed in his final attempt to secure a review of his 2010 conviction for perjury.

The UK Supreme Court has refused him permission to appeal the refusal by the Court of Session of his petition for judicial review against the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.

The conviction arose from his successful defamation action against the publishers of the News of the World regarding his private life, in which a civil jury awarded him £200,000 damages. He was found guilty of perjury in respect of evidence given during those proceedings, though the courts subsequently refused to overturn the award itself.

Mr Sheridan was refused leave to appeal his perjury conviction. His application to the Commission to refer his conviction to the High Court of Justiciary for an appeal was refused in March 2015 and again in June 2016. He challenged the first of those decisions by petition for judicial review. The Lord Ordinary refused the petition, a decision that was upheld by the Inner House.

It was announced yesterday that a three judge panel of the Supreme Court has refused Mr Sheridan's application to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal, on the question whether his perjury conviction should be referred to the High Court of Justiciary for an appeal. The judges considered that his application did not raise an arguable point of law.

Mr Sheridan has now exhausted all possible legal processes to challenge his conviction.