By Jon Kelly

It took in crudely-forged documents, doctored videoclips, claims of illicit gay sex and the murkier end of Fleet Street.

Ian Strachan described himself as a fashion stylist and agent

But an Old Bailey jury has decided that defendants Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan were guilty of trying to blackmail £50,000 from an unnamed minor royal - however comedic the pair's efforts sounded.

The acronyms employed to preserve the victim's anonymity added a frisson of intrigue to the court hearings. Who was "witness A", the member of Britain's monarchy the pair had targeted?

Above all, however, the case painted a rather desperate picture of the defendants' lives on the fringes of London high society.

'Walter Mitty'

Strachan, 31, of Fulham, west London, and McGuigan, 41, of Battersea, south London, spent a total of five months making eight hours of tapes which they hoped would earn them a huge payday.

They believed their ticket to riches was "witness D" - an aide to A whom Strachan met in 2006, and who he covertly filmed apparently describing a sexual encounter with his employer.

The aide - who was drunk while most of the recordings were made - also told how another royal "flashed his willy in his face", the jury heard.

If he knows what's good for him he will ring me back

Phone call to witness A's aide from 'Kent Logan'

Royal blackmail pair jailed

Strachan himself was dismissed in court by Ron Thwaites QC, McGuigan's barrister, as a "Walter Mitty" character.

In the course of his work as a fashion stylist and agent, Strachan admitted in court that he would often falsely claim to have a degree in law from Edinburgh University. In fact, he had dropped out of an access course after just a few months.

The product of a broken home from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, he remained close to his mother. He intended to share the proceeds of the blackmail plot with her, the prosecution claimed.

Strachan told the jury that he was spurred into action after he and two of his friends were sexually assaulted by D.

He resolved to expose the aide by covertly filming him taking cocaine and bad-mouthing his employer's family.

The crucial line - where D claimed that A had performed a sex act on him on the kitchen floor of a flat - was, prosecutors said, spliced together from more than one conversation.

But Strachan attempted to hawk the tapes around Britain's tabloid newspapers. The News of the World, the Sun, the Mail and Sunday and the Sunday Express were approached, but all rejected the offer, as did publicist Max Clifford.

'Wasn't my idea'

Realising that Fleet Street was not interested, the prosecution said, the pair decided to extract funds directly from Witness A himself.

A "threatening" phone call was left with A's assistant. "If he knows what's good for him he will ring me back," said the caller, who called himself "Kent Logan". According to the prosecution, the mobile phone used to make the call belonged to Strachan's mother.

Belfast-born McGuigan spoke to witness C, another one of A's aides, about how he had been in rehab.

The blackmailers demanded £50,000 and attempted to set up a meeting with the royal, but unbeknown to them the police had been contacted.

An undercover detective, posing as an aide called Paul Butler, arranged to meet them in room 713 of London's Park Lane Hilton hotel.

Strachan and McGuigan arrived with the tapes, not realising that the room was bugged.

During the meeting, Strachan flaunted a contract for £250,000 with the News of the World. James Weatherup, a reporter for the newspaper, confirmed that he had met the pair, but that the document was a forgery.

In the hotel room, "Paul Butler" asked the pair: "So if I don't purchase it you'll go to Max [Clifford], is what you're saying?"

Strachan replied: "Well, if you don't purchase it, then..."

Shortly afterwards, police entered the room, arrested the pair and took them away separately.

As McGuigan waited in a police car outside Belgravia police station, he was heard saying: "It wasn't my idea to get money off him, I didn't ask for money, it wasn't my idea."

The jury disagreed, and both men are beginning prison sentences for their crime.

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