Gail Sheridan, wife of the former Socialist MSP, is unlikely to face charges of stealing miniature bottles of spirits from her employer, British Airways, The Herald understands.
When Tommy and Gail Sheridan appear in court next week accused of perjury there will be no sign of the charge of theft brought by police in relation to her allegedly having a collection of souvenir miniatures in a display case at their home.
Crown Office sources admitted last night that the theft charges against Mrs Sheridan would not feature next Thursday, although it was claimed that theoretically these could be re-introduced later.
But The Herald understands that it is likely that the charges will be dropped against the former MSP's wife, who was suspended from her airline cabin crew job last month.
Last night, the Sheridan camp was convinced that the theft charges were dead in the water and were always intended as a crude way of applying pressure over the wider perjury allegations arising from Mr Sheridan's victory in the defamation action against the News of the World about his private life.
He won £200,000 but that prompted a police investigation into perjury which in turn led to his wife being charged, not just with perjury for supporting her husband but of the theft of miniature bottles of spirits.
Mr Sheridan claimed at the time of the theft charges that his wife was subject to a witchhunt for backing him in court.
The couple were refusing to comment yesterday on the basis of legal advice.
A Crown Office source said last night: "There is a long way to go yet in this case. Speculation as to any eventual charges is unfounded.
"In Scots Law the charges which appear in the petition at any first appearance are only initial charges and can be completely altered before the case is indicted, after the case has been further investigated and considered by the fiscal and Crown counsel."
Hugh Kerr, the former Labour MEP who became an aide to Mr Sheridan and followed him from the Scottish Socialist Party across into the breakaway party Solidarity, said last night that the news fitted with what they had been hearing about the process.
"Solidarity are delighted to hear that Gail Sheridan is not being charged with theft. This trumped-up charge was clearly an attempt to discredit Gail as a witness and pressurise her and Tommy over the perjury case," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article