Tommy Sheridan claims a series of newspaper articles are untrue

Ann Colvin told then News of the World Scottish news editor Douglas Wight she witnessed the scene in the Moat House Hotel on 8 June, 2002.

Mr Wight told the Court of Session the prostitute involved later claimed Mr Sheridan was a regular client.

The Socialist MSP is claiming �200,000 damages in a defamation action.

She thought it was like a cheeky schoolboy talking to a schoolgirl Douglas Wight

Mr Wight, then Scottish news editor of the Sunday tabloid, said an anonymous phone call led him to Ms Colvin who told how she had been invited to "a party".

The court heard she had been drinking in a private suite at the Moat House Hotel with two women friends but became bored and wandered off.

Mr Wight said: "She opened the door of one room which was near the bathroom and she was shocked to see inside that room was a double bed.

"On that bed were two naked men and a naked female and they were all engaged in sexual acts at the same time.

"She told me she recognised one of the men as Tommy Sheridan."

'Cheeky schoolboy'

She said Mr Sheridan came out of the room and joined the rest of the people at the party.

She asked him why he was at such an event.

Mr Wight said: "He leered at her and said: 'Because I knew you were coming'.

"She thought that was rather a disgusting phrase to come out with.

"She thought it was like a cheeky schoolboy talking to a schoolgirl."

Mr Wight said the woman had not asked for, or been given, payment for her story.

She had contacted the News of the World after seeing on television Mr Sheridan's public denials of allegations about his sex life, which appeared in the Sunday newspaper in November 2004.

Football connection

Mr Wight said he tracked down a man called Matt McColl who was said to have arranged the party and booked the hotel suite.

He was met with vigorous denials.

The other man in the hotel bed was said to be a footballer.

Mr Wight said the prostitute claimed she was regularly used by Sheridan and was brought up from Birmingham for "parties like this".

Mr Sheridan of Cardonald, Glasgow, is suing News Group Newspapers, publishers of the News of the World, over stories about his sex life which he claims were untrue and defamatory.