Bob Bird

Last updated

Bob Bird is the former editor of the Scottish edition of the defunct News of the World tabloid. [1]

Contents

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 Group Newspapers defamation case and the 2010 HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan perjury case.

Sheridan v News Group Newspapers

In the original trial in 2006, Sheridan sued News International, 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 authorised the payment of £14,000 to two women in return for their story. [2] Sheridan won the case, and was awarded £200,000 in damages. [3] The News of the World launched an immediate appeal against the verdict. [4]

HM Advocate v 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 to reassure his source that he was not wearing a wire. [5] [6] Bird paid £200,000 for the secret video footage, which his newspaper claimed showed Sheridan admitting to his extramarital affairs. [7] 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 authorised the use of illegal phone taps and bugs to obtain information on the MSP. [8] Sheridan was found guilty of perjury and was subsequently jailed for three years. [9]

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 affair. [10] Bird had testified during the trial that he had not authorised the use of telephone taps against Sheridan, [11] 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 affirmation 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 authorisation of the phone hacking) had been lost during a transfer to Mumbai. [12]

However, in 2011, News International admitted that the emails had not gone missing as Bird had claimed, [13] 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. [14] 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, [15] 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. [16] [17]

Personal life

Bird was married to BBC Scotland newsreader Jackie Bird. They have two children.

Related Research Articles

<i>News of the World</i> 1843–2011 British tabloid newspaper

The News of the World was a weekly national red top tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one of the highest English-language circulations. It was originally established as a broadsheet by John Browne Bell, who identified crime, sensation and vice as the themes that would sell most copies. The Bells sold to Henry Lascelles Carr in 1891; in 1969 it was bought from the Carrs by Rupert Murdoch's media firm News Limited. Reorganised into News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation, the newspaper was transformed into a tabloid in 1984 and became the Sunday sister paper of The Sun.

Tommy Sheridan Scottish politician

Tommy Sheridan is a Scottish politician serving as convenor of Solidarity since 2019. He previously served as convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party from 1998 to 2004 and as co-convenor of Solidarity from 2006 to 2016. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2007.

Carolyn Leckie is a Scottish politician. She was a member of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), and held a number of senior positions in the party, but has since left the SSP. From 2003 to 2007 she was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Central Scotland region, having been elected on the SSP list.

Rosemary Byrne is a Scottish politician who served as co-convenor of Solidarity from 2006 to 2019.

Andrew EdwardCoulson is an English journalist and political strategist.

<i>Sheridan v News Group Newspapers Ltd</i>

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. He alleged that the News of the World defamed his character through a series of articles in their publication.

Solidarity – Scotland's Socialist Movement is a political party in Scotland. The party launched on 3 September 2006, founded by two Scottish Socialist Party MSPs, Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne, in the aftermath of Sheridan's libel action.

News International phone hacking scandal Media scandal

The News International phone-hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct News of the World and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories. Whilst investigations conducted from 2005 to 2007 appeared to show that the paper's phone hacking activities were limited to celebrities, politicians, and members of the British royal family, in July 2011 it was revealed that the phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British soldiers, and victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings had also been hacked. The resulting public outcry against News Corporation and its owner Rupert Murdoch led to several high-profile resignations, including that of Murdoch as News Corporation director, Murdoch's son James as executive chairman, Dow Jones chief executive Les Hinton, News International legal manager Tom Crone, and chief executive Rebekah Brooks. The commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), Sir Paul Stephenson, also resigned. Advertiser boycotts led to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011, after 168 years of publication. Public pressure forced News Corporation to cancel its proposed takeover of the British satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

<i>HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan</i>

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. Tommy Sheridan was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, whereas Gail was acquitted.

Operation Weeting is a British police investigation that commenced on 26 January 2011, under the Specialist Crime Directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service into allegations of phone hacking in the News of the World phone hacking affair. The operation is being conducted alongside Operation Elveden, an investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to the police by those involved with phone hacking, and Operation Tuleta, an investigation into alleged computer hacking for the News of the World. All three operations are led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, Head of Organised Crime & Criminal Networks within the Specialist Crime Directorate.

The News of the World royal phone hacking scandal was a scandal which developed in 2005 to 2007 around the interception of voice mail relating to the British royal family by a private investigator working for a News of the World journalist. It formed a prelude to the wider News International phone hacking scandal which developed in 2009 and exploded in 2011, when it became clear that the phone hacking had taken place on a much wider scale. Early indications of this in the police investigation were not followed through, and the failures of the police investigation would go on to form part of the wider scandal in 2011.

The News Corporation scandal involves phone, voicemail, and computer hacking that were allegedly committed over a number of years. The scandal began in the United Kingdom, where the News International phone hacking scandal has to date resulted in the closure of the News of the World newspaper and the resignation of a number of senior members of the Metropolitan Police force.

The News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations followed the revelations in 2005 of voicemail interception on behalf of News of the World. Despite wider evidence of wrongdoing, the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal appeared resolved with the 2007 conviction of the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, and the resignation of editor Andy Coulson. However, a series of civil legal cases and investigations by newspapers, parliament and the police ultimately saw evidence of "industrial scale" phone hacking, leading to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011. However, the affair did not end there, developing into the News Corporation ethics scandal as wrongdoing beyond the News of the World and beyond phone hacking came to light.

Operation Rubicon was a Scottish police investigation into allegations of phone hacking, breach of data protection and perjury.

By 2002, the practice of publications using private investigators to acquire confidential information was widespread in the United Kingdom, with some individuals using illegal methods. Information was allegedly acquired by accessing private voicemail accounts, hacking into computers, making false statements to officials to obtain confidential information, entrapment, blackmail, burglaries, theft of mobile phones and making payments to officials in exchange for confidential information. The kind of information acquired illegally included private communication, physical location of individuals, bank account records, medical records, phone bills, tax files, and organisational strategies.

<i>HM Advocate v Coulson</i>

Her Majesty's Advocate v Andrew Coulson was the trial of Andy Coulson, a former editor of the News of the World and former Director of Communications for David Cameron, on charges of perjury.

References

  1. NoW hacking row: Tommy Sheridan trial evidence reviewed – BBC News, 7 July 2011
  2. Scot News of the World ed takes stand in Sheridan libel trial – Press Gazette, 4 August 2006
  3. Sheridan victory in court battle – BBC News, 4 August 2006
  4. Tabloid launches Sheridan appeal – BBC News, 11 August 2006
  5. Semi-naked editor feared Tommy Sheridan was trying to film him, trial told – The Scotsman, 13 November 2010
  6. The cloak and dagger bid to trap Sheridan – The Herald, 13 November 2010
  7. Newspaper editor 'stripped to see Tommy Sheridan tape' – BBC News, 12 November 2010
  8. News of the World denies using 'dark arts' against Sheridan – The Daily Telegraph 12 November 2010
  9. Sheridan jailed for three years for perjury – BBC News, 26 January 2011
  10. NoW hacking row: Scottish police to probe claims – BBC News, 8 July 2011
  11. NoW editor denies 'illegal culture of phone-tapping' – BBC News, 15 November 2010
  12. Phone hacking: information commissioner ends NoW inquiry – The Guardian, 17 June 2011
  13. Phone hacking: News of the World locates 'lost' archive of emails: Millions of emails from 2005 and 2006 are likely to include those by Andy Coulson and three former editors implicated in affair – The Guardian, 28 March 2011
  14. Another Guardian Scoop: Destruction of Evidence at News Corp – Columbia Journalism Review, 8 July 2011
  15. News of the World: Crown Office asks police to investigate Sheridan witness evidence – The Scotsman, 8 July 2011
  16. News of the World scandal: Cops to quiz PM's pal over Tommy Sheridan case – The Daily Record, 8 July 2011
  17. Tommy Sheridan 'might not have been jailed' if e-mails were seen at perjury trial – The Scotsman, 5 July 2011