Source: Monsters & Critics, AFP
Two men were jailed for five years each today after being found guilty of a £50,000 ($100,000 USD) blackmail plot against a member of the royal family.
Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan demanded the money for a set of recordings featuring "scandalous" remarks by a royal employee and charges of gay sex.
They were convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey following a three-week trial estimated to have cost more than one million pounds. Each salacious detail of the trial was splashed onto the covers of London tabloids last month.
In early 2007, the pair made a series of audio and video recordings of a man who had been employed for some years by the royal, the jury heard during the trial, AFP reports.
Much of the eight hours of material was recorded when the man was drunk or "under the influence of other substances," said prosecutor Mark Ellison.
"He was also shown recounting stories and alleged experiences, making allegations of impropriety as to how his employer conducted aspects of his business.
"And there were three audio files of the man apparently asserting that the member of the royal family who employed him had performed an act of oral sex on him".
The recordings contained material which would have potential to "cause embarrassment and hurt to his employer" and a number of other members of the extended royal family, the prosecutor said.
The court heard that Strachan was a 'fantasist' who liked to claim he was a friend of royals and lived a champagne lifestyle.
McGuigan, a former alcoholic, had made contact with the royal's representatives to threaten him.
'The corrosive evil of blackmail means that any sentence must have a deterrent effect,' the presiding judge said Friday.
The defendants had made 'scurrilous accusations' and collected 'scurrilous and alacious material' against the royal, his family and his business, said the judge.
Mark Carroll, the Crown Prosecution Service reviewing lawyer, said afterwards: "Although they claimed to be acting in the interests of the victim, the jury rejected this story and agreed with the prosecution that they were simply interested in the money.
Although the identity of the royal concerned has been revealed in overseas media, he cannot be named under British laws governing cases of blackmail, Monsters & Critics reports.
Full article: Pair jailed for blackmailing British royal over gay sex claims | AFP
Two men jailed for blackmailing British royal over alleged gay sex | Monsters & Critics