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The Playboy
Who were the victims
SYNOPSIS
The circumstances surrounding this royal blackmail are incredibly unusual, they involve a playboy conman, various members of the Royal Family and their employees, News of the World and their reporters, and the Security Services.
In 2007, the world was rocked with a major scandal surrounding allegations that Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan had attempted to blackmail a member of the royal family in return for handing over covert filming and recordings of parties within the royal family’s complex.
Strachan, a well-known playboy in London boasted of his friendship with Prince William and Prince Harry, and, therefore, as a consequence moved in the right circles to be able to accede to information about a number of topics involving every single member of the royal family. He supported this with covert recordings and intersections, that were provided to him by the News of The World and an electronics firm that is managed by the Security Services. After failing to blackmail a certain member of the royal family in France, where the French police refused to intervene the venue changed to the London Hilton Hotel, where an incredible sting operation took place.
Arrested in Flagrate at the luxury hotel, Strachan and McGuigan were remanded in custody to face trial at the Old Baily. The amount involved was relatively small in comparison to the seriousness of the allegations, even though those allegations were more of a moral nature than anything any member of the royal family had participated in unlawfully.
This was the first time that the judgement of a member of the royal family and that member’s association would be called to account. The secret covert recordings were made subject to Court Orders which even led to a certain controversial figure to retrieve a copy from the vault of the Security Services, in itself an incredible operation in the middle of the day.
Notwithstanding, Strachan being defended by a high-profile lawyer and two of the best QCs in the country the jury convicted both. The Judge, however, unusually sentenced them to a relatively low sentence of five years imprisonment and again, in unusual circumstances, Strachan is sent almost immediately to an open prison. There he caused controversy by painting members of the royal family in unusual poses and even sells the paintings to the governor and members of the prison staff.
Upon release not being able to find his niche and covertly surveyed by the Security services, on one occasion he leaps out of a balcony breaking his legs. Subsequently, a coroner records a verdict of suicide upon his death, but questions remain as to whether it really was suicide or murder.