The story of the two men arrested after attempting to blackmail a minor member of the British Royal Family has been headlined as a "gay-sex-and-drugs blackmail plot" by The Times newspaper yesterday. Ian Starchan, 30, and Sean McGuigan, 40, were arrested last month after police mounted a sting operation. They are alleged to have demanded £50,000 (NZ$133,750) not to release a video showing a member of the Royal Family engaged in oral sex with an aide. They also claimed that the Royal supplied the aide with cocaine. The pair were arrested after a police officer, posing as another Royal aide, attended a meeting with them at a Hilton hotel in London. Since The Sunday Times newspaper broke the story at the weekend, there has been widespread speculation as to the identity of the Royal Family member who is the victim of the alleged blackmail. Today's Mirror tabloid has dragged the names of the princes William and Harry into its report on the scandal, one of the men arrested has previously met with the Princes. However, Starchan's adviser Giovanni Di Stefano has denied there was any video of a sex act. "There is no tape in existence," he said in a statement. "What there is in existence are tapes both audio and visual of an assistant to a member of the royal family boasting of how he received a sex act from this royal family member. "Whether that act took place I do not know." Ref: The Times, The Mirror (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Tuesday, 30th October 2007 - 12:23pm