Wife scoffs at sex claims

EDINBURGH - Gail Sheridan, wife of former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan, went into court yesterday to defend her husband over allegations he cheated on her at cocaine-fuelled group sex parties.

On day 19 of a £200,000 ($603,480) defamation action against the News of the World, Gail Sheridan, a flight attendant, was the last witness to be called by her husband, representing himself.

The 42-year-old Scottish Parliament MP for Glasgow asked his wife whether she believed that he led a secret life as a champagne-drinking, cocaine-snorting adulterer with a passion for kinky group sex involving spanking, torture and bisexuality.

Gail Sheridan said she thought the claims were ridiculous, and claimed that if she thought they were true she would have killed him herself. "There's no way I would be here. And neither would you be. You'd be in the Clyde and I would be in court for murder."

She said she had checked her diaries, his diaries and her company rosters for the time the affairs were supposed to have taken place and was convinced nothing could have happened on many of the dates. Far from being a party animal, her husband was a "boring" man.

Danish-born former party member Katrine Trolle, 31, previously told the Court of Session in Edinburgh that she had a four-year relationship with Sheridan. Gail Sheridan said she believed that the allegations were part of a political plot to undermine his leadership of the party.

- INDEPENDENT