LONDON, Oct. 29, 2007
Suspects Named In Royal Blackmail Case
U.K. Men Charged With Demanding Cash For Alleged Sex Tape
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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II hosts a reception at St James's Palace in London on Oct. 15, 2007. Reports suggest two men have been arrested after attempting to blackmail a less well-known member of the Royal family. (AP Photo/PA)
Ian Strachan, 30, and Sean McGuigan, 40, are being held in custody until they appear at London's Central Criminal Court on Dec. 20 on blackmail charges, prosecutors said.
The allegations became public over the weekend with a report in The Sunday Times. Buckingham Palace has refused to comment on the report, saying it had nothing to say about what it described as "a police matter."
London police have only said that two men appeared in court Sept. 13 and were charged with blackmail. The appearance was held in private and a court order has banned identifying the victim or any potential witnesses in the case.Photos: In Royal Circles
The preliminary hearing on Dec. 20 will allow a judge and lawyers to discuss future dates in the court case, prosecutors said.
The Sunday Times said the alleged blackmailers had approached the unnamed family member and demanded $100,000 not to publicize a video allegedly showing the royal engaged in a sex act. The pair also claimed to have evidence suggesting the royal had supplied an aide with an envelope containing cocaine, the newspaper said.
The newspaper said it could not identify the royal family member for legal reasons.
The British Broadcasting Corp., without citing sources, said the blackmail target was not a senior member of the royal family.
The Sunday Times said the target contacted police, and two suspects were arrested at a London hotel on Sept. 11 after an undercover police operation.
An undercover police detective posing as a royal aide reportedly contacted the alleged blackmailers and arranged the meeting at the London Hilton on Park Lane.
Strachan is a property developer in London who grew up in a wealthy area of Aberdeen, Scotland, where he attended a private school and ran a clothes shop before moving to Britain's capital.
Giovanni di Stefano, Strachan's legal adviser, said the suspect owns a home in the wealthy London area of Chelsea and regularly socialized with people on the fringes of Britain's royal family.
No background information was immediately available about McGuigan.
With a black-out on facts about the alleged blackmail, what seemed like royal scandal is already looking more like farce, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.
A lawyer in the case tells CBS News there's no sex on video, there's only talk about sex.
"As for what's on it, there's been all sorts of rumors about sex, drugs ... We just don't know at the moment, until it comes out in court," royal author Robert Jobson told Roth.
©MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- Like we care about this ... !!! CBS please. OK if it had been Prince Charles with a bell boy on the vid then yes, but this is ''news filling'' for the bored and those who only have a few brain cells
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- Ype, it always seems relative to what you''re measuring...must be the ''theory of royal relativity''.
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- Police reviewing the video were shocked to discover that all rulers do not measure 12 inches!
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