A WOMAN who claims she had a four-year sexual affair with Tommy Sheridan broke down in the witness box yesterday after being directly cross-examined by him in court.

Katrine Trolle, 31, an occupational therapist from Denmark who moved to Scotland ten years ago, found herself being questioned by the married former leader of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) about their alleged affair after he sacked his legal team last week and began representing himself in his defamation action.

Ms Trolle, a former member of Mr Sheridan’s party, had been in the witness box at the Court of Session in Edinburgh for three hours when she lost her composure after he ended more than 40 minutes of polite cross-examination in which he accused her of lying to assist his political enemies.

Mike Jones, QC, for the News of the World, which is defending a £200,000 defamation action brought by Mr Sheridan over articles about his sex life, asked her if she wanted to reply. “It is embarrassing enough to have it all over the papers but to make it up! I would never do such a thing,” Ms Trolle said, choking back tears. “Yes I did do all those things, but I have changed a lot and I am embarrassed about what happened. ”

Mr Sheridan, 42, wearing a dark suit, sat on the front bench with the bewigged QCs defending the newspaper.

At one point, addressing Ms Trolle, he said: “I put it to you, Ms Trolle, that the reason you are here is because Allison Kane has encouraged you to be here. She has encouraged you to give this evidence because Allison Kane and others are involved in trying to undermine me in my position within the SSP. People have been out to get Sheridan for years.”

Earlier he listened as Ms Trolle told the court that the affair started when she went canvassing with him during the Anniesland by-election in late 2000, a few months after Mr Sheridan’s marriage.

The court was shown Mr Sheridan’s phone records detailing calls to Ms Trolle from April 2003 to January 2005.

The witness claimed they had sex up to seven times, allegedly including a three-in-a-bed incident, until late 2004, when he warned her about an impending exposé in the News of the World.

Having originally denied a relationship, she was then cited as a witness and felt she had to tell the truth in court under oath. She advised Mr Sheridan’s lawyers of that and subsequently was called five times in one day by the MSP, she said.

The hearing continues.

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