MSP Tommy Sheridan was at a stag party with his father-in-law on the night he allegedly had a three-in-a-bed sex romp, a court heard yesterday.

And Angus Healy - father of the politician's wife Gail - said he was certain of the date ... because it was the night he paid £10 for a plate of chips.

Healy, 69, insisted former Scottish Socialist Party leader Sheridan didn't leave the bash all evening.

Sheridan is suing the News of the World for £200,000 over allegations about his sex life.

Earlier, witnesses told the defamation trial they spotted Sheridan, 42, in bed with a prostitute and another man at Glasgow's Moat House Hotel on either the first or second Friday in June 2002.

But Healy said Sheridan was with him on both dates. On June 7, the retired care worker said, they were both at a stag night for Andrew MacFarlane, who was due to wed his other daughter, Gillian.

He told the Court of Session in Edinburgh that the group had started with drinks at the Quo Vadis pub in Cardonald, Glasgow, before moving on to a restaurant.

Healy said: "I had ordered a prawn omelette and the omelette came without prawns. I sent it back."

He compared the experience to a "restaurants from hell" TV programme and said he didn't eat the omelette when it came back with chips.

Healy added: "I had a plate of chips which cost me a tenner."

The following week, the night before the wedding, he said Sheridan and Gail had been at their house to pick up Healy's sister, who had flown in from Miami for the event.

Healy said Sheridan had arrived about 8.30pm and left about 10pm with his sister, who was due to stay with him and his wife Gail for a week.

Yesterday, Sheridan clashed with the editor of the newspaper which branded him a serial adulterer.

In four hours of tense exchanges, he grilled Bob Bird on torrid stories about his sex life in the Scottish edition of the News of the World.

At one stage, the paper's QC complained that Sheridan, who is conducting his own legal case, was "abusing" the editor.

Sheridan was also warned by the judge after claiming Bird, 50 had been "coached to give misleading answers".

But the politician's unconventional courtroom style did force the editor on to the back foot on several occasions.

Bird was forced to admit that evidence given in court contrasted significantly with details carried in his newspaper's stories.

Sheridan opened the questioning by asking Bird: "Is the News of the World always sure of its facts?"

Bird said: "We try our very best - that's the case every time."

Sheridan referred to a transcript of a conversation in which the former Scottish news editor Douglas Wight branded staff at the paper "chancers".

Bird said: "I think it was taken out of context when it was reported by other papers."

But Sheridan asked: "Are you a chancer?"

Bird said: "No."

Sheridan continued: "Does your newspaper tell lies about people?"

Bird replied: "No."

The MSP asked about a number of cases in which he claimed public figures - including David Beckham, Justin Timberlake and Wayne Rooney - won libel damages or out-of-court settlements from the News of the World.

But Bird defended the paper's record in exposing the failings of people who are prominent in public life.

He said: "We have brought many a career to an end."

The jury were again shown the News of the World headline: "My kinky four-in-a-bed orgy with Tommy" - their expose of the MSP's alleged affair with ex-escort girl Fiona McGuire. Sheridan asked: "Is this story true?" Bird replied: "Yes, I believe it is." Sheridan accused Bird of publishing the story in November 2004 without checking it thoroughly and accused the editor of "Bird-speak".

He then quizzed him about differences between the story and what McGuire, 32, told the court.

Bird told him: "What she described in court differed slightly but the main core of it, that she had an affair with you, that she had group sex with you, backed up our story."

He agreed that the five-in-a-bed sex session with everyone freely using champagne and cocaine - which McGuire described in court - was different from the published account.

Bird said the former escort girl had "romanticised" the newspaper story to show herself in a better light.

He insisted that McGuire had agreed to the story being used, even though she had apparently tried to take her own life days earlier.

He said: "I don't think we would have agreed to put it in if she had not agreed to it."

The court had already heard how the device of attributing the story to "a pal" was to allow Fiona McGuire to deny direct co-operation with the newspaper.

When Sheridan suggested they had "invented" a source, Bird replied: "We were not inventing a source. We had a perfectly good story from Fiona McGuire. We were protecting her."

Bird told the court he did not have any problems with Wight taping conversations with McGuire without her knowledge.

The witness said: "I think in the circumstances that is allowable."

Mike Jones, QC for the News of the World, later asked Bird about suggestions that his paper had been "out to get" Sheridan.

Bird said: "I went back though the files. There were about 60 different mentions of him and the party. The vast majority were positive.

"I think the most derogatory thing we said about Mr Sheridan was in a column, about his tan."

The case, before Lord Turnbull, continues.

'I think the most derogatory thing we said about Mr Sheridan was in a column about his tan'

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