Two men have been jailed for five years each after being found guilty of a £50,000 gay sex blackmail plot against a member of the royal family.
Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan demanded the money for a set of recordings featuring "scandalous" remarks by a royal employee.
Among the claims were that the married royal, witness A, performed a sex act on his employee, witness D, at a party.
Strachan and McGuigan used the tapes to demand money from A after trying but failing to sell them to newspapers.
They were arrested in a sting operation at a London hotel by undercover police officers in September last year.
Strachan, 31, of Imperial Wharf, Fulham, south-west London, and McGuigan, 41, of Latchmere Road, Battersea, south London, were sentenced after being convicted by an Old Bailey jury of demanding money with menaces.
Their convictions followed a police investigation and three-week trial thought to have cost at least £1 million.
Mark Ellison QC, prosecuting, said it was a "classic example of blackmail".
The court heard that Strachan was a "Walter Mitty" type fantasist who liked to claim he was a friend of royals and lived a champagne lifestyle.
McGuigan, a recovering alcoholic, made contact with A's representatives in July last year and was present as the tapes were played to an undercover officer posing as a royal aide, in a meeting shortly before both men were arrested.
