At the time of his announcement, his wife Gail was expecting their first child, and this was the reason Sheridan cited as being his primary motivation for resigning: "I cannot continue to be the party convener and be a proper father.
The EC of the Scottish Socialist Party requested that he pursue a political rather than legal response to the allegations and declined to publicly back his court case.
As part of their defence, the News of the World demanded that the Scottish Socialist Party hand over all documents related to the executive meeting immediately prior to Tommy Sheridan's resignation.
[4] Six witnesses who had been at the crucial meeting were also called to support Sheridan's claim that the minute was not accurate in that he had denied visiting the swingers' club, rather than confessing as had been recorded.
The jury heard allegations that Sheridan had visited "swingers'" clubs in Sheffield and Manchester and had engaged in an adulterous affair with another woman.
Alan McCombes, the SSP official who had previously been jailed for refusing to hand over minutes of a party meeting when required to do so as part of this litigation, told the Court that Sheridan had admitted to him that he had visited swingers clubs.
Trolle later testified that these allegations were true and that she had visited Cupid's swingers' club with Sheridan and his wife's sister's husband, where they indulged in group sex.
However, this was not paid to Sheridan, as the News of the World's editor Bob Bird immediately announced the newspaper intended to appeal the verdict on the basis that it implied "eighteen independent witnesses came to this court and committed monstrous acts of perjury".
[7] A number of other activists also came forward to claim that Sheridan had held similar meetings with them, in particular allegedly admitting that he had affairs and attended sex clubs.
[8] In October 2006, the News of the World released a videotape which allegedly taped Sheridan confessing to attending the club and admitting such to the SSP National Executive.
[11] On 19 October 2006, it was reported that the police had interviewed a member of the SSP and were intending to seize computing equipment that had been used to type the minutes of party meetings.
Sheridan has previously stated "the streets of Lothian must be crime-free if the police can devote time to harassing a family", following the charging of two with perjury, not to mention five others who "are my friends".
[21] The trial of Tommy and Gail Sheridan started on 4 October 2010 at the Glasgow High Court, before Lord Bracadale, with a jury of thirteen women and two men.
[30] Sheridan has continued to maintain his innocence in the perjury case, and to reject the allegations made against him, while counsel for the newspaper group wanted the verdict of the jury in 2006 to be "struck down".
[31] The three judges in their written summary said that the jury had valid reasons for reaching their verdict that the News of the World had defamed Sheridan, even though they may have concluded that he had lied in court about "several matters".