Andy Coulson detained in perjury case

The former editor of the News of the World and David Cameron’s former Chief of Communications, Andy Coulson, has been arrested by Strathclyde Police on suspicion of committing perjury during the trial of Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan’s trial.

Sheridan himself was jailed for three years for perjury in January 2011 after it was ruled that he had lied in the 2006 action he brought against the News of the World when Mr Coulson was its editor. He was released after serving a year in prison.

Detectives in Scotland, where Mr Coulson is now headed, say that they have been investigating a number of witnesses who they believe may have lied during Sheridan’s trial in order to conduct a full investigation into phone hacking in Scotland.

Mr Coulson has been arrested regarding evidence that he gave in December 2010, and at the time denied any knowledge of illegal activities undertaken by reporters of the News of the World. Coulson said: “I don’t accept there was a culture of phone hacking at the News of the World.”

Coulson was also arrested last year as part of the Scotland Yard investigation into phone-hacking at the newspaper, and was held last July on charges of corruption and conspiring to intercept communications, although his bail has now been extended further.

The 44-year-old resigned from the News of the World in 2007, after the former royal editor of the paper, Clive Goodman, was jailed for phone-hacking, along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

He became Director of Communications and Planning for the Conservative Party just months later, but quit his job in January last year, saying that the row over illegal activity at the News of the World was making his job impossible.

Abbie Cavendish