A MAN jailed for five years for the blackmail of a mystery royal over gay sex tapes is to lodge an appeal, his lawyer said today.
Giovanni Di Stefano confirmed that his client Ian Strachan is to appeal against the conviction.
Strachan, 31, and co-accused Sean McGuigan, 41, were found guilty by a jury after a three-week Old Bailey trial.
They demanded £50,000 from a member
of the Royal Family, known as A, for tapes in which one of his employees made lurid claims about him.
Today Mr Di Stefano said: "We are appealing against conviction. There was never any blackmail he wanted to expose."
Strachan, of Imperial Wharf, Fulham, south-west London and McGuigan, of Latchmere Road, Battersea, south London, turned to blackmail after trying and failing to sell the material to a number of newspapers.
The pair were arrested in a police sting operation involving an undercover officer posing as a royal aide at a London hotel.
The court heard Strachan, who is originally from Aberdeen, was a "Walter Mitty" type fantasist who liked to claim he was a friend of royals and lived a champagne lifestyle.
Trial judge Mr Justice Cook said: "This offence has been described as one of the ugliest and most vicious crimes in the calendar of criminal offences and was described in this court as a dirty, filthy and hideous crime."
He told Strachan and McGuigan: "You were motivated by greed and also by revenge. You were prepared to tell lie after lie.
"The corrosive effect of blackmail means that any sentence in a case of this kind must have a deterrent effect."
The full article contains 282 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
