Tommy Sheridan launched into an extraordinary victory speech today after winning his libel case against The News of the World and being awarded the maximum £200,000 damages by a jury.

The former leader of the Scottish Socialist Party thrust a clenched fist into the air outside Edinburgh's Court of Session as his wife Gail smiled broadly, wiping away tears.

"We have over the last five weeks taken on one of the largest organisations on the planet, with the biggest amount of resources to pay the most expensive legal team, to throw nothing but much against me, my wife and my family.

"Well, brothers and sisters, what today’s verdict proves is that working class people, when they listen to the arguments, can differentiate the truth from the muck."

The Sunday tabloid had printed claims in 2004 and early 2005 that the former Scottish Socialist Party leader had cheated on his wife by visiting swingers’ clubs and taking part in orgies.

But the jury took just two and a half hours to decide against the paper finding in favour of Mr Sheridan in a majority verdict of seven to four.

"The working class people and the jury who have found in our favour have done a service to the people of Scotland and have delivered a message to the standard of journalism that the News of the World represents," he yelled.

"They are liars and we have proved that they are liars."

The Glasgow MSP, 42, who represented himself for much of the libel trial after sacking his legal team, said that he could never have conducted his case without the support of his family and was now intending to spend quality time with his 14-month-old daughter.

The verdict was met with stunned silence, before relatives of Mr Sheridan began to weep, and his wife Gail — whose evidence was integral to his case, gave him a long embrace.

Mr Sheridan’s mother Alice said afterwards: "Our prayers have been answered."

As his parting words to the cheering crowd he said: "Against poverty and inequality in Scotland, and against war and against nuclear weapons. Those are the things that matter most, brothers and sisters.

The victory, he said was the equivalent to Gretna beating Real Madrid on penalties.

"Gretna have made it into Europe for the first time in their lives," he yelled passionately. "Well, what we have done in the last five weeks is the equivalent of Gretna taking on Real Madrid in the Bernabeu and beating them on penalties.

"That’s what we’ve done."

Bob Bird, Editor of the Scottish News of the World, said that he was "flabbergasted" by the jury’s decision which was "perverse" and that the paper intended to appeal.

"The News of the World is absolutely astonished by today’s verdict," he said.

"This result suggests that 18 independent witnesses came to the court and committed monstrous acts of perjury.

"We simply can’t accept that is what happened. We still believe that our story was the truth and we put up a very good case in court to back that up."

The case, which has gripped Scotland was, Mr Sheridan claimed, "the mother of all stitch-ups" an unwarranted attack on his reputation as a hard working politician.

The News of the World claimed the reports were "substantially true".

Mr Sheridan, who helped found the Scottish Socialist Party and led it until November 2004, stood down after the paper printed a story about an unnamed Holyrood politician who was a "spanking swinger".

It was based on claims by the paper’s journalist Anvar Khan, with whom Mr Sheridan has admitted having a sexual relationship when he was single in 1992.

But he has staunchly denied her claims that she maintained a sexual relationship with him after he married wife Gail.

This story was followed up by claims from a former prostitute Fiona McGuire, (who was paid £20,000 by the tabloid) that she had a four-year-affair with Mr Sheridan, and SSP candidate Katrine Trolle also claimed she had a four-year-affair with him.

Both women said Mr Sheridan had visited Cupids swingers club in Manchester.

Far from being a philandering, sex-mad politician, his weaknesses, he said, were more in the vein of an intense fondness for playing scrabble.

His wife of six years, Gail, stood by her husband through the case, walking hand in hand with him to court each day. By the time she was due to give her evidence, Mr Sheridan was representing himself and as such would question his own wife.

So came the most riveting of the court room dramas, climaxing when Mrs Sheridan told her husband she would have killed him if he cheated on her.

"You would be in the Clyde with a piece of concrete tied round you and I would be in court for your murder."

Describing the claims of affairs as "total, utter rot", said: "I have been proud of you all my life but I have never, never been more proud of you than I have the last four weeks in this court.

"You are taking them on, The News Of The World, and you’re taking the legal establishment on.

"I have never been more proud of you."

During her evidence, the courtroom erupted with laughter when she said her husband "looks like a gorilla" and questioned why none of the women who alleged they had been intimate with him had not mentioned such a feature.

"You are like a monkey, so anybody rolling an ice cube round your body would end up with a hairball in their throat."

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