House. On 2 December the prosecution completed its case. It dropped the charge of subornation of perjury on the grounds of lack of corroboration, and some points from the charges of perjury against both Sheridans. Defence case The defence opened its case on 3 December. Both Sheridans declined to act as witnesses themselves. Many of the witnesses called by Sheridan were members of Solidarity, his own party, including Hugh Kerr, Rosemary Byrne and Mike Gonzalez. He also called Andy Coulson, Downing Street director of communications and former News of the World editor, who denied that he had any knowledge of phone hacking at the News of the World, or that he knew Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective at the centre of controversy. Tom Watson had briefed Sheridan's team about alleged phone hacking a few days earlier. Four witnesses who were present at the crucial SSP executive meeting of 9 November 2004 claimed that Sheridan did not admit to visiting a sex club at the meeting. On 17 December the defence case completed. The prosecution then dropped the last remaining charge against Gail Sheridan, who was acquitted by the judge. Later that day her solicitor made a statement on her behalf outside the court thanking her legal team. Summations Alex Prentice gave his closing speech on 20 December. Sheridan gave his closing speech on 21–22 December, Lord Bracadale gave his summing-up, the jury then retired to consider their verdict and were later sent home for the night. Verdict On 23 December the jury found Sheridan guilty of five of the six outstanding charges of perjury, by majority verdict. The only one where they acquitted him was lying about his alleged affair with Anvar Khan, they also deleted the mention of lying about having sex with Katrine Trolle in his home. He was bailed pending background reports. On 26 January he was sentenced to three years in prison. On both days Gail Sheridan made a statement outside the court saying that she was standing by her husband. Sheridan was released on license on 30 January 2012, having served just over one year of his sentence. Aftermath After the trial, the Crown Office issued a statement saying that no further action would be taken against six other people charged with perjury in relation to the civil trial, five of whom were Sheridan's associates (see above). BBC Scotland broadcast a radio drama based on