Former editor of News of the World, Andy Coulson, is detained

David Cameron’s former communications chief Andy Coulson yesterday was being questioned at a Scottish police station on suspicion of committing perjury during the trial of former MSP Tommy Sheridan.

I don’t accept there was a culture of phone hacking...

The 44-year-old was detained in London in the morning by officers from Strathclyde Police.

Mr Coulson, a former editor of the News of the World, gave evidence in December 2010 at Mr Sheridan’s per-jury trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Mr Sheridan was ultimately jailed for three years in January 2011 after being found guilty of perjury during his 2006 defamation action against the News of the World.

He had been awarded £200,000 in damages after winning the civil case but a jury at the High Court in Glasgow found him guilty of lying about the now-defunct tabloid’s claims that he was an adulterer who visited a swingers’ club.

Operation Rubicon detectives have been looking at whether certain witnesses lied to the court during Mr Sheridan’s trial as part of a “full” investigation into phone hacking in Scotland.

Mr Coulson, then employed by Downing Street as director of communications, told the trial in December 2010 that he had no knowledge of illegal activities by reporters while he was editor of the News of the World.

He also claimed: “I don’t accept there was a culture of phone hacking at the News of the World.”

Mr Coulson was arrested last year in relation to Scotland Yard’s long-running investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World.

He was held in July on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and corruption, and had his bail extended earlier this month.

Mr Coulson resigned as editor in 2007 after the paper’s former royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for phone hacking.

Only months later, in May that year, he was unveiled as director of communications and planning with the Conservative Party.

He quit his role as Downing Street communications chief in January last year after admitting the News of the­­ World phone-hacking row was making his job impossible.