Five years for royal blackmailers
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Two men have been jailed for five years each after being found guilty of a £50,000 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.
Among the claims were that the married royal, witness A, performed a sex act on his employee, witness D, at a party. They were arrested in a sting operation at a London hotel by undercover police officers in September last year.
Crown Prosecution Service reviewing lawyer Mark Carroll said: 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.'
Strachan, 31, of Imperial Wharf, Fulham, south-west London, and McGuigan, 41, of Latchmere Road, Battersea, south London, were sentenced after being convicted by an Old Bailey jury of demanding money with menaces.
Their convictions followed a police investigation and three-week trial thought to have cost at least £1 million.
Mark Ellison QC, prosecuting, said it was a 'classic example of blackmail'.
The court heard that Strachan was a 'Walter Mitty' type fantasist who liked to claim he was a friend of royals and lived a champagne lifestyle.
McGuigan, a recovering alcoholic, made contact with A's representatives in July last year and was present as the tapes were played to an undercover officer posing as a royal aide, in a meeting shortly before both men were arrested.
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