Two men have been jailed for five years each for the "vicious" blackmail of a member of the Royal Family over gay sex tapes.

Ian Strachan, a Scot, and Sean McGuigan were yesterday found guilty 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. The employee, witness D, said A had performed a sex act on him at a party - encouraged by a stripper.

It was also suggested that the royal had taken drugs.

Strachan, formerly of Aberdeen, and McGuigan turned to blackmail after failing to sell the material to various newspapers. They were arrested in a police sting operation involving an undercover officer posing as a royal aide at a London hotel.

Trial judge Mr Justice Cooke said: "This offence has been described as one of the ugliest and most vicious crimes in the calendar of criminal offences."

He told Strachan and McGuigan: "You were motivated by greed and 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."