Ex-Downing St aide Coulson accused of committing perjury

The former News of the World editor was detained for questioning at Govan police station in Glasgow earlier yesterday by officers from Strathclyde Police.

The force said a report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal which will decide whether Coulson is to face court proceedings.

A Strathclyde Police spokesman said last night: “Officers from Strathclyde Police Operation Rubicon detained a 44-year-old man in London this morning on suspicion of committing perjury before the High Court in Glasgow.”

Operation Rubicon detectives have been looking at whether certain witnesses lied to the court during Sheridan’s trial as part of a “full” investigation into phone hacking in Scotland.

Coulson, then employed by Downing Street as director of communications, told the trial in December 2010 he had no knowledge of illegal activities by reporters while he was editor of the News of the World.

Sheridan was ultimately jailed for three years in January 2011 after being found guilty of perjury during his 2006 defamation action against the News of the World.

He was awarded £200,000 in damages after winning the civil case but a jury at the High Court in Glasgow found him guilty of lying about the now-defunct tabloid’s claims that he was an adulterer who visited a swingers’ club.

The former MSP was released from jail in January after serving one year of his sentence.

Coulson resigned as editor of the News of the World in 2007 after the paper’s former royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for phone hacking.

In May of that year, he was unveiled as director of communications and planning with the Conservative Party. He quit his Downing Street role in January 2011 after admitting the News of the World phone-hacking row was making his job impossible.