The former News of the World editor and Chief of Communications for the Prime Minister at the start of the Cameron administration, Andy Coulson was detained this morning by police from the Strathclyde (Scotland) force on suspicion of committing perjury.
Unlike his earlier arrests by the Metropolitan Police, he was not invited to make an appointment with his lawyer but got the traditional 6.30 a.m. knock on his front door in South London. Scottish law is also different in that he is technically being 'detained on suspicion' rather than arrested. In English law, arrest is followed in serious cases by a period while the Crown Prosecution Service considers whether the evidence is sufficient for a charge. In some cases with the Murdochgate gang, this has been several months. (My understanding is that investigations and questioning in Scotland are carried out in cooperation between the police and the Procurator Fiscal so formal arrest and charging are more contemporaneous.)
Coulson was (probably still is as I write this) being driven by car the 400+ miles to Glasgow for questioning.
UPDATE: The 21:00 GMT television News here report that Coulson has just been arrested and charged with perjury.
The allegations surround evidence that Coulson gave at the trial of a former Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Tommy Sheridan in December 2010. Sheridan was convicted of committing perjury during a successful defamation case against the News of the World (NotW). The paper had printed allegations in 2006 that Sheridan had committed adultery and made a practice of visiting "swingers" clubs. After getting £200,000 in damages from the NotW, Sheridan was the subject of a police investigation.
On 16 December 2007, Sheridan was charged with perjury in relation to the News of the World case. In a public statement outside the police station he attributed his arrest to the "powerful reach" of the Murdoch press. During February 2008, his wife Gail, former SSP [Scottish Socialist Party) MSP Rosemary Byrne, former members of the SSP Executive Committee, Patricia Smith, Graeme McIver, Jock Penman, and Sheridan's father-in-law, Angus Healey were also charged with perjury.
On 27 January 2009, Sheridan and his wife were indicted for perjury, and were summoned to attend a pre-trial hearing at Edinburgh High Court on 26 February. however this was postponed until 11 May.
This trial started at Glasgow High Court on 4 October 2010. Sheridan's initial defence team included Donald Findlay, who was replaced by Maggie Scott. However, a few weeks into the case, Sheridan instructed his Solicitor Aamer Anwar, who has defended him since 2007, to withdraw Scott's instructions. He was subsequently only represented by Anwar, while conducting the cross-examination himself.
Sheridan was convicted, sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and was released in January this year. He continues to deny the perjury charges and intends to appeal. It was his cross-examination of Coulson at the 2010 trial that the current investigation appears to have been centered on by Operation Rubicon, the Scottish investigation into illegal activities by the Murdoch press.
In March 2007, Lothian and Borders Police investigated claims that Tommy Sheridan had been bugged after a suspicious device was found in his car. The device was described as "not of the kind used by British security services".
A complaint submitted to Strathclyde Police in July 2011 lead to Operation Rubicon, a major investigation involving 50 officers investigating allegations of phone hacking, breach of data protection and perjury by News of the World.
The evidence Coulson gave which appears to have been his downfall is outlined by the
BBC side bar and relates to his time as editor of the NotW from 2003 to 2007.
The tabloid (NotW) had published a string of lurid allegations about Sheridan but Mr Coulson denied he had a vendetta against the former MSP.
The smartly-dressed spin doctor also denied having any knowledge of illegal phone hacking at the newspaper, denied that he had been given a pay-off to keep quiet about his time as editor, and denied any knowledge of journalists at the paper paying corrupt police officers for information.
He also denied that there had been a corrupt relationship between News International and Scotland Yard. [In the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davis, "well, he would, wouldn't he?"]