UK NEWS
'BLACKMAIL PLOT ROYAL ON VERGE OF GOING PUBLIC'
Ian Strachan is being accused of blackmailing the Royal
Wednesday October 31,2007
By Martin Evans
THE Royal at the centre of an alleged blackmail plot was last night under increasing pressure to go public after being named around the world.
The individual, who was granted anonymity by the British courts, has been in hiding since news of the alleged extortion emerged at the weekend.
However, scores of websites, several newspapers and some television channels outside UK jurisdiction named the alleged victim of the plot.
Two men have been arrested and remanded in custody charged with attempting to extort £50,000 from the minor Royal.
It is claimed Ian Strachan, 30, and Sean McGuigan, both of London, threatened to release a recording of an aide to the Royal taking cocaine and discussing a sex act involving the individual.
The mother of Strachan, who is being held on remand at Belmarsh jail, London, last night pleaded her son’s innocence.
Elizabeth Savage, 51, a former model, said: “I can’t believe he has been charged with blackmail. Ian is a well brought-up kid. We live together and are very close. He has never been involved in anything like this before.”
His mother added: “He’s a part of the London social circuit, but it’s not how he has been presented. He is just like many other 30-year-old single men. He goes out and has a large group of friends.
“He isn’t a socialite. He has been employed in a number of different areas from the fashion industry to property.
There are a lot of people who know him and might be jealous of him and start coming out of the woodwork. It’s not the true picture of Ian.”
Strachan, who was born in Aberdeen but moved to London with his mother in the 1980s, claims to have rubbed shoulders with members of the Royal Family, including Princes William and Harry, Zara Phillips and Lord Frederick
Windsor.
Among the first media organisations to name the Royal were two Italian newspapers. One even published a photograph of the alleged victim under the headline: Sex and coke at Buckingham Palace.
Ian Strachan’s lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano said: “This is typical of the Italian media and serves no purpose.
“I was called numerous times by foreign media outlets asking for the name and I never revealed it. In fact, I asked them not to speculate as justice has to be done.”
A British writer named the Royal during a discussion on US television. Author Nicholas Davies, who has written books on the Royal Family, made the announcement on the Fox News Channel.
Solicitor Simon Jowett, part of Mr Strachan’s legal team, said his client would plead not guilty to the blackmail charges.
He added: “Mr Strachan is a man of good character. He has maintained his innocence. We have a situation where an officer purporting to be an aide of a Royal puts together a meeting where money was due to be collected. The police have come under pressure to create a crime so a non-publication order could be obtained to protect the Royal.”
The men were arrested when police officers were tipped off and organised a sting operation at London’s Hilton Hotel on September 11.
HARRY NUTTALL IN GAY SEX & DRUGS SCANDAL
10.12.07, 11:30am
Another z list celebe, Billionaire Baronet Harry Nuttal, a friend of Ian Strachan, is one of the jet set glitzy boys involved in sex, drugs blackmail case. I'm guessing the sex and drugs bit.
• Posted by: Henry06 • Report Comment
BILLIONAIRE BARONET HARRY NUTTALL FRIEND OF IAN STRACHAN
09.11.07, 10:56am
Another z list celebe, Billionaire Baronet Harry Nuttal, a friend of Ian Strachan, is one of the jet set glitzy boys involved in sex, drugs blackmail case. I'm guessing the sex and drugs bit.
• Posted by: Henry06 • Report Comment
BLACKMAIL PLOT ROYAL GOING PUBLIC
01.11.07, 7:57pm
He should have seen this coming, instead of everyone else seeing him !
Who really gives a stuff, the kind of people that slow down for a motorway accident I bet, you know who you are, or the ones who are driven insane with lust in the hope that it could have been them having their chisel sharpened....
• Posted by: Mike4224 • Report Comment
'BLACKMAIL PLOT ROYAL ON VERGE OF GOING PUBLIC'
01.11.07, 9:08am
The man concerned is a Viscount .... and his second name starts with Linle .........I can say no more
• Posted by: Eddie • Report Comment
'BLACKMAIL PLOT ROYAL ON VERGE OF GOING PUBLIC'
31.10.07, 1:39pm
I can't tell a lie..... it's Lord Lindley
• Posted by: TicToc • Report Comment
GOING PUBLIC
31.10.07, 11:49am
He should have gone public right at the beginning of the affair by saying "Prove it...and even if you can , so what?"
• Posted by: gimleteye7 • Report Comment
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