Updated at 5:55 p.m. ET: LONDON -- A former spokesman for Britain’s prime minister was charged Wednesday with perjury during a high-profile court case in Scotland involving a politician -- a move that brings the Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal closer to the heart of government.

Andy Coulson, who worked as David Cameron's director of communications, was held in London by detectives investigating claims he committed perjury during the trial of a politician accused of taking part in adulterous, drug-fueled sex orgies at swingers' clubs.

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Coulson, 44, was transferred north from London to Glasgow, Scotland, for questioning on Wednesday, according to Britain’s Sky News.

Strathclyde Police issued a statement that said: "Officers from Strathclyde Police's Operation Rubicon team detained a 44-year-old man in London this morning under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure Scotland Act 1995 on suspicion of committing perjury before the High Court in Glasgow."

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Coulson resigned from his job as the Cameron’s chief spin doctor in January 2011 amid growing public anger over the phone-hacking scandal.

Prior to working for Cameron, he was editor of the News of the World, the now-defunct Murdoch Sunday tabloid. He resigned from that job in 2007 - also over phone hacking.

Now he is implicated in another long-running saga – that of Tommy Sheridan, a lawmaker and icon of left-wing Scottish politics.

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Coulson gave evidence in a 2010 Glasgow High Court trial at which Sheridan was jailed for three years for lying under oath during his earlier defamation action against the News of the World in 2006, STV News reported.

Sheridan had won £200,000 in damages over an article that said he had committed adultery, visited a swingers' club and taken part in drug-fueled orgies.

Giving evidence at the 2010 trial, Coulson denied being involved in, or aware of, any illegal activities, including phone hacking, the BBC reported.

Earlier this month, Coulson appeared in front of an ongoing inquiry into press standards where he revealed he still held shares in Murdoch’s News Corp. while working as working as Cameron’s director of communications.

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British Prime Minister David Cameron has admitted he rode a horse given by police to a Rupert Murdoch newspaper editor, seeking to end days of embarrassing confusion over an animal that has become an unlikely symbol of the phone hacking scandal.

After his aides had spent days dodging questions about the horse, Cameron apologized for the lack of clarity and confirmed that he had ridden it while a guest at the country estate of Rebekah Brooks, who used to run Murdoch's UK newspaper business.

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The questions have been awkward for Cameron, accused by the opposition of being too close to Murdoch's News Corp, the company at the center of a public outcry over illegal phone hacking and payments to police.

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Cameron ordered an inquiry into media standards last year and a judge is taking evidence from scores of witnesses on the often close ties between the media, police and politicians.

Harriet Harman, the opposition Labour Party's deputy leader, accused Cameron of not being straight about how close he was to senior executives at News Corp. "It's time for him to come clean about the extent of this relationship," she said in a statement.

Brooks, who was arrested last year by police investigating wrongdoing at Murdoch's newspapers, lives close to Cameron in one of England's most expensive regions.

The image of Cameron riding horses with wealthy friends is uncomfortable for a leader who has sought to play down his wealth and privileged background, not least while his government seeks to implement deep public spending cuts.

A cartoon in the left-leaning Guardian newspaper showed a red-faced Cameron on all-fours in a field with a bridle in his mouth and Brooks and Murdoch sitting on his back. A speech bubble from Cameron's mouth played on infamous comments from former U.S. President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair: "I did not have relations with that horse."

London's police force said this week that it had given Brooks one of its retired horses, called Raisa, to look after at her country home in Oxfordshire, northwest of London.

Apologizing for the "confusing picture" painted over the past few days, Cameron said he rode before the 2010 election with Brooks' husband, Charlie Brooks, a race-horse trainer and friend from Eton College, one of Britain's top schools.

"Before the election, yes I did go riding with him," Cameron told a news conference in Brussels, where he was attending a European Union meeting on jobs and growth.

"He has a number of different horses and yes one of them was this former police horse Raisa which I did ride. I think I should probably conclude by saying I don't think I will be getting back into the saddle anytime soon."

The revelation follows dogged questioning by Daily Telegraph reporter Christoper Hope. On Wednesday, a Cameron aide laughed off his questions about the animal. On Thursday, a spokeswoman said he had not ridden the horse. In a television interview, Cameron then said he had not ridden the horse since the 2010 election. On Thursday night, a spokesman finally said Cameron had "probably" gone for a ride on Raisa.

Cameron has previously been forced to defend his judgment after he hired former Murdoch editor Andy Coulson as his press secretary after Coulson quit the News of the World following the jailing of its royal reporter for phone hacking. Coulson resigned in January 2011.

Reuters and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

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Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper arm is to launch a Sunday tabloid newspaper "very soon", it said on Friday, only seven months after it was forced to close its News of the World Sunday tabloid to defuse public outrage at the phone hacking scandal.

Murdoch was spending the day at his east London base to try and reassure staff at his mass selling tabloid The Sun after a string of arrests rocked staff in recent weeks.

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He sent an email to staff confirming that he was still committed to the paper and would launch a Sunday edition of The Sun to replace the News of the World, which ceased publication in July when it emerged that its journalists routinely eavesdropped on the private voice-mail messages of celebrities, sports figures, politicians and crime victims including a murdered 13-year-old girl.

 

Murdoch said he plans to remain in London for several weeks to handle the crisis caused by phone hacking and police investigations into alleged email hacking and purported bribery of public officials.

The contents of the internal email were quickly circulated and published on media news websites.

'Great journalism'
Murdoch's visit follows last week's arrest of five senior staff at The Sun as part of an inquiry into the alleged payment of bribes to police and defense officials for information. A total of 10 current and former staff at The Sun — Britain's biggest selling newspaper — have been questioned over the allegations. None has so far been charged.

"We cannot protect people who have paid public officials," Murdoch said in his email, which was forwarded to The Associated Press. "I am confident we can live by these commitments and still produce great journalism."

Murdoch confirmed that staff currently suspended amid the police inquiries would be allowed to return to their posts, and pledged to help The Sun, which he has owned since 1969, recover from the crisis. He said the tabloid is "part of me and is one of our proudest achievements."

"We will build on The Sun's proud heritage by launching The Sun on Sunday very soon," Murdoch's email read. "Our duty is to expand one of the world's most widely read newspapers and reach even more people than ever before."

The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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