Alleged Blackmail Plotters Royally Stitched Up

FIRST came Squidgygate, then Camillagate. The tag for the latest scandal involving an illicit tape-recording of a member of the British royal family is yet to be coined, but Blackmailgate may be a start.

Scotland Yard has confirmed that two men have been charged with blackmailing a member of the royal family over a videotape purporting to show the royal engaged in a sex act.

The Sunday Times reported yesterday that detectives had arrested the men in an undercover operation at the Hilton Hotel in London on September 11. The royal household contacted police in August, after one of the men telephoned the office of the royal and claimed to have a video showing the royal receiving oral sex from an aide. The blackmailer also claimed to have evidence that an aide had received cocaine from the royal.

The newspaper quoted a senior Whitehall security official as saying that in subsequent phone calls the blackmailer claimed to have a videotape showing the aide snorting cocaine, and demanded $113,000 in return for not releasing the videotape publicly.

A senior legal adviser to the royal reportedly agreed to see the tape before he would hand over the money to the men.

A detective from Scotland Yards kidnap and blackmail unit was placed within the royal office. He arranged to meet two men at the Hilton Hotel, posing as a member of the royals staff.

During the rendezvous, parts of the video were allegedly shown, with detectives filming the meeting in an adjacent room. The blackmail video was seized and the two men were arrested.

In a statement, Scotland Yard said: "A 30-year-old man and 40-year-old man appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates Court each charged with one count of blackmail. Both have been remanded in custody to reappear at the Old Bailey on December 20."

A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said the magistrates hearing had been held in camera, and that reporting restrictions had been imposed to prevent the victim or witnesses from being identified.

Royal tape scandals are not new. In 1992 The Sun published the contents of telephone conversations between Diana, Princess of Wales, and her then boyfriend, James Gilbey, in which he referred affectionately to her as Squidgy. In the calls, Diana described her marriage as "torture", discussed her fears of being pregnant and of the couples affair being discovered.

Later that year, a tape of a phone call between Prince Charles and his then mistress, Camilla Parker-Bowles, was published, in which the prince infamously said he wished he would be reincarnated as her tampon.

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