Former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan faces being jailed at the High Court in Glasgow following his perjury conviction.

The 46-year-old ex-MSP was found guilty last month of lying under oath during his successful defamation action against the News of the World in 2006.

The jury's verdict came at the end of a high-profile 12-week trial, believed to be one of the longest perjury trials in Scottish legal history.

Sheridan will return to the court for sentencing and judge Lord Bracadale has already warned him he faces a jail term.

In a legal first, reporters will be allowed to publish live details straight from the courtroom using the social network Twitter. The move, the first time that journalists will be able to use the technology in a Scottish court follows an application from STV News. STV will also be providing live coverage throughout the morning online from outside court.

The hearing on Wednesday is the latest chapter in a six-year drama which began when the Sunday tabloid printed allegations about Sheridan's private life, including that he visited a swingers' club and cheated on his wife.

He was awarded £200,000 in damages after winning his defamation case against the newspaper at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, but he ended up in the dock facing a trial for perjury. Sheridan insisted he was innocent, claiming he was the victim of a "vendetta" by the police and a "conspiracy" involving the News of the World and colleagues within the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), who he said made claims against him as part of a "political civil war".

He claimed that 16 former allies in the SSP were lying when they told the court that he had admitted at a 2004 meeting to having been to Cupid's swingers' club in Manchester.

Presenting his own defence, Sheridan also called Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor and Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief, to give evidence.

But the High Court jury ultimately convicted him of five of six allegations in a single charge of perjury against him, relating to his evidence during the civil case. In doing so, they found that he was guilty of lying about an affair and a trip to a sex club.

Following the verdict, Sheridan's wife Gail, who went on trial accused of perjury but was acquitted of the charge, vowed to stand by her husband.

Sheridan, who stepped down as convener of the SSP in November 2004 and established a new group, Solidarity, remained defiant following his conviction.

In a statement read by his solicitor Aamer Anwar outside court, he said: "I have fought the power of News International all my political life and I make no apologies for taking on the might of Rupert Murdoch."

The News of the World said it was pleased justice had been done.

Following the verdict, Sheridan's former SSP allies said: "By his actions over six years, Tommy Sheridan has disgraced himself and negated his political contribution to the socialist cause over 25 years.

"History will now record that he did more harm to the socialist cause in Scotland than any good he ever did it."