'Classic blackmail' claims aired

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Two men accused of demanding £50,000 in exchange for royal gay sex tapes were engaged in a "pretty classic example of blackmail", the Old Bailey has heard.

Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan are accused of trying to extort money from a Royal Family member.

Prosecutor Mark Ellison QC said the tapes featured "salacious" remarks about the married royal.

Strachan, 31, and McGuigan, 41, both of London, deny the charge of demanding money with menaces.

The two were arrested in a hotel during a police sting operation last year as an undercover officer posed as a royal aide.

Salacious claims

The Old Bailey has heard claims that the men recorded tapes of a royal employee, witness D, in which he claimed that an unnamed royal, witness A, performed a sex act on him.

Mr Ellison, in his closing speech, rejected Mr Strachan's assertion that all he wanted to do was win the favour of witness A and discredit D.

He said: "A demand with menaces can be made in many different ways other than by writing a note saying 'I hereby demand X, or else'.

"We have, if one stands back, a pretty clear, pretty classic example of blackmail.

"Whatever they might say about their reasons for doing so, the defendants together gathered hours and hours of recordings of D, who was often intoxicated, much of which featured, without any doubt, salacious and potentially damaging allegations about A, his business, his personal life, and his relatives in the Royal Family, as well as film of D apparently snorting cocaine, and one or two snippets referring to sexual conduct."

Mr Ellison also claimed that Mr Strachan edited the tapes to highlight sections which would be of interest to tabloid newspapers.

The case continues.