Pair guilty of royal blackmail plot

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.

Strachan and McGuigan used the tapes to demand money from A after trying but failing to sell them to newspapers.

They were arrested in a sting operation at a London hotel by undercover police officers in September last year.

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.