Ex-NOTW Editor Andy Coulson Acquitted Of Perjury

The Scottish perjury trial of former Downing Street director of communications Andy Coulson has collapsed.

The judge acquitted the former newspaper editor after ruling that he had no case to answer.

Mr Coulson had been accused of lying on oath during the 2010 perjury trial of the former socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan.

Judge Lord Burns agreed with Mr Coulson's defence team that, whether or not he had lied during the Sheridan case, it wasn't relevant to the outcome of that trial and so didn't amount to perjury. He was duly acquitted.

Speaking outside the High Court in Edinburgh, Mr Coulson said he was "obviously delighted" by the ruling, which was the "right decision".

He added: "This prosecution was always wrong. I didn't lie, and the prosecution in my view was a gross waste of public money.

"I'm just delighted that after four pretty testing years, that my family and myself have finally had a good day."

Mr Coulson has already served a prison term after being convicted of phone-hacking while editor of the now-defunct News Of The World (NOTW).

He was convicted at the Old Bailey in June 2014 and served five months of an 18-month sentence.

His latest trial at the High Court in Edinburgh centred on evidence he gave during Mr Sheridan's 2010 trial. Mr Coulson was David Cameron's communications director when he was cited to be a witness.

He had been editor of the NOTW when the paper had published stories about Mr Sheridan's private life.

Mr Coulson was accused of lying in the witness box when he testified that he knew nothing of phone-hacking at the newspaper and was unaware of payments to corrupt police officers.

During his trial, former journalist colleagues gave evidence of a phone-hacking culture at the NOTW.

The paper's former royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, said that Mr Coulson had asked him to take the blame for intercepting voicemails at the newspaper as a lone wolf.

Ex-chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck gave evidence that Mr Coulson knew about intercepted voicemails on the phone of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

Former news editor James Weatherup said there was a hand gesture used during NOTW editorial conferences to indicate when information had come from phone-hacking.

It was a damning indictment of practices at the Sunday tabloid Mr Coulson ran but, in the judge's view, not grounds for convicting him a second time.