Two men jailed for royal blackmail plot

Two men were jailed for five years yesterday for the "dirty, filthy and hideous" attempt to blackmail a member of the royal family with a recording featuring claims he had performed a gay sex act on an employee.

Ian Strachan, 31, and Sean McGuigan, 41, were found guilty of attempting to blackmail the royal, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, for £50,000 (€64,000) after failing to sell the story to a number of national newspapers.

The recordings contained material from a man employed in the royal household which, if ever published, would have the potential to "cause embarrassment and hurt to his employer", prosecutors said.

The recordings also contained "scandalous and disparaging remarks" about other royals, London's Old Bailey court heard.

Prosecutors said that between March and July 2007, Mr Strachan approached several newspapers - The News of the World, The Sun, the Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday - and publicist Max Clifford to try and sell the material, asking for a "substantial sum".

When that failed, the pair approached the royal. They were arrested after an undercover police sting at a London hotel.

In statements read to the jury, the royal, known as Witness A, de-nounced the tape's allegations as "without foundation".

Despite the pair denying making an unwarranted demand with menaces, the jury of eight men and four women reached their unanimous verdict after less than a day.

In sentencing the pair, Justice Jeremy Cooke described the crime as "dirty, filthy and hideous".

"This offence is one of the most unpleasant and vicious crimes in the criminal calendar," he told them.