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Blackmailed royal will not have to appear in court
The member of the Royal Family at the centre of an alleged 50,000 pounds blackmail plot will not have to enter the witness box.
- Telegraph Group
- Published: 23:58 April 14, 2008
London: The member of the Royal Family at the centre of an alleged 50,000 pounds blackmail plot will not have to enter the witness box.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has blocked moves to require him to give evidence in the case, which opened at the Old Bailey yesterday.
It is the first blackmail case involving a member of the Royal Family in more than a century and is scheduled to last for three weeks.
Ian Strachan, 30, and Sean McQuigan, 40, are accused of trying to demand £50,000 "with menaces" from the member of the Royal Family.
They deny the charges. They are alleged to have sought the money by threatening to release a mobile phone video of an assistant taking cocaine and additionally boasting of engaging in a homosexual act with him.
The alleged victim, who is married with children, has been questioned three times by the police. He has denied all the allegations made in the video.
A court order prevents the identity of the member of the Royal Family or any potential witnesses being made public in Britain, which is standard procedure in blackmail cases.
Despite the news blackout, the member of royalty concerned fears that he has been "hugely damaged'" after being identified on American television and the internet.
If he entered the witness box, he feared that he would be exposed in the same way that Prince Harry's secret Army mission to Afghanistan was reported in Britain after it was disclosed on the web.
The defence team believes the CPS has scored an own goal by refusing to allow him to give evidence. One source said: "It is almost unheard of for the victim of the alleged blackmail not to be in court."
The accused have been in custody since their arrest last September.
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