Bob Bird
Encyclopedia
Bob Bird is the former editor of the Scottish
edition of the defunct News of the World
tabloid.
He is best known for the widespread media coverage over his role in two trials involving former Scottish MSP
Tommy Sheridan
- the 2006 Sheridan v News International
libel case and the 2010 HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
perjury case.
, publishers of the Sunday newspaper the News of the World
, for defamation, after it published stories making allegations that the married MSP had been indulging extramarital affairs. During the trial, Bob Bird, as editor of the newspaper, testified that he had authorized the payment of £14,000 to two women in return for their story. Sheridan won the case, and was awarded £200,000 in damages. The News of the World launched an immediate appeal against the verdict, which was unsuccessful.
and bugs to obtain information on the MSP. Sheridan was found guilty of perjury and was subsequently jailed for three years.
. Bird had testified during the trial that he had not authorized the use of telephone taps against Sheridan, and that he had no dealing with Glen Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for his role in the phone hacking affair. Bird had also claimed under oath that NOTW company emails requested by Sheridan's defence team as part of their discovery motion
(which could have shown evidence of Bird's knowledge and authorization of the phone hacking) had been lost during a transfer to Mumbai
.
However, in 2011, News International admitted that the emails had not gone missing as Bird had claimed, after an independent computer archiving firm announced it had provided evidence to the police over an attempt by Bird to destroy the email archive while they were working with it. The Crown Office subsequently requested a formal investigation from the Strathclyde Police into the witness testimony given by Bird and others at the perjury trial, amid claims from Sheridan's legal team that Bird's testimony was unsafe and that Sheridan would not have been jailed if information regarding the phone hacking and missing emails had been disclosed.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
edition of the defunct News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
tabloid.
He is best known for the widespread media coverage over his role in two trials involving former Scottish MSP
Member of the Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish Parliament is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.-Methods of Election:MSPs are elected in one of two ways:...
Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan is a Scottish socialist politician. He has had various prominent roles within the socialist movement in Scotland and is currently one of two co-convenors of the left-wing Scottish political party Solidarity....
- the 2006 Sheridan v News International
Sheridan v News International
Sheridan v News Group Newspapers is a civil court case brought by Tommy Sheridan against the publishers of the News of the World, which began in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 4 July 2006...
libel case and the 2010 HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan was the 2010 criminal prosecution of Tommy Sheridan, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament and his wife Gail Sheridan for perjury in relation to the earlier civil case Sheridan v News Group Newspapers.In Scotland criminal prosecutions...
perjury case.
Sheridan vs News International
In the original trial in 2006, Sheridan sued News InternationalNews International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....
, publishers of the Sunday newspaper the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
, for defamation, after it published stories making allegations that the married MSP had been indulging extramarital affairs. During the trial, Bob Bird, as editor of the newspaper, testified that he had authorized the payment of £14,000 to two women in return for their story. Sheridan won the case, and was awarded £200,000 in damages. The News of the World launched an immediate appeal against the verdict, which was unsuccessful.
HM Advocate vs Sheridan and Sheridan
The Scottish News of the World subsequently claimed to have 'irrefutable proof' that Sheridan had lied on the stand during his libel case; Bob Bird claimed that he had paid personally obtained the information from an informant, having had to strip to his underpants in the process in order to reassure his source that he was not wearing a wire. Bird paid £200,000 for the secret video footage, which his newspaper claimed showed Sheridan admitting to his extramarital affairs. The allegations eventually led to a police investigation and a court case, with Sheridan standing trial for perjury in 2010. During this trial, Bob Bird denied allegations from Sheridan that Bird had authorized the use of illegal phone tapsTelephone tapping
Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line...
and bugs to obtain information on the MSP. Sheridan was found guilty of perjury and was subsequently jailed for three years.
News of the World phone hacking affair
Bob Bird's testimony in the second trial came under renewed focus the following year, during the investigation into the News of the World phone hacking affairNews of the World phone hacking affair
The News International phone-hacking scandal is an ongoing controversy involving mainly the News of the World but also other British tabloid newspapers published by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police...
. Bird had testified during the trial that he had not authorized the use of telephone taps against Sheridan, and that he had no dealing with Glen Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for his role in the phone hacking affair. Bird had also claimed under oath that NOTW company emails requested by Sheridan's defence team as part of their discovery motion
Discovery (law)
In U.S.law, discovery is the pre-trial phase in a lawsuit in which each party, through the law of civil procedure, can obtain evidence from the opposing party by means of discovery devices including requests for answers to interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for...
(which could have shown evidence of Bird's knowledge and authorization of the phone hacking) had been lost during a transfer to Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
.
However, in 2011, News International admitted that the emails had not gone missing as Bird had claimed, after an independent computer archiving firm announced it had provided evidence to the police over an attempt by Bird to destroy the email archive while they were working with it. The Crown Office subsequently requested a formal investigation from the Strathclyde Police into the witness testimony given by Bird and others at the perjury trial, amid claims from Sheridan's legal team that Bird's testimony was unsafe and that Sheridan would not have been jailed if information regarding the phone hacking and missing emails had been disclosed.