Ian Strachan, jailed last year in London for attempting to blackmail a member of the British royal family with video tapes he claimed featured sex and drugs, has revealed in an interview with music magazine ‘Hot Press’, that he has over eight hours of footage.

Strachan claims to have footage of a royal aide indulging in oral homosexual sex and cocaine.

The royal aide was employed by Princess Margaret’s son, Viscount David Linley, who is 12th in line to the British throne. Because a UK media blackout ensured that little of the substance of the case was reported, this is the first time Strachan has told his story to the media.

Strachan, who says he was regularly invited to parties held by the viscount, says: “I got handwritten invitations, done by his hand.” He also says that on the video tapes which he possesses, “it was revealed that the death of Princess Margaret was not actually a stroke. My understanding is that she died from HIV contracted from Johnny Bindon, a gangster she used to date”.

Strachan also claims the tapes include footage of a younger royal and a well-known nightclub promoter with drugs, as well as discussions, involving a royal aide, about Princess Diana’s alleged murder. He also says that he met princes William and Harry “a couple of times”; he socialised with many members of the royal family; his grandfather played golf with Prince Philip, and he has pictures signed by the viscount of his other grandfather with Princess Margaret.

Also on the queen’s sister, Strachan says: “There was a big thing about when she burnt her feet in the bath and she blamed the maid. The actually story was she was out of her face on valium and gin – as she usually was.”

After it became known that Strachan, claimed to have incriminating video tapes involving the royals, he says his mother “was threatened on several occasions, as were other members of my family. I thought I might get shot in the head”.

He says that he has eight hours of footage and that “when the story came out it was all about the sex act and that was only a very small point in the tapes, to us. There was more shocking and probably damaging stories concerning basically nearly every senior member of the royal family”.

Strachan also reveals that he has an Irish girlfriend and that he plans to move here after he is released from prison.

“I love Ireland. Kinsale is a favourite place of mine,” Strachan says. “I haven’t been out in Dublin for a good four years now, but I really enjoyed myself when I was there.”

Strachan was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted with Sean McGuigan, an Irishman living in London. Both protest their innocence of the blackmail charges.

The new issue of ‘Hot Press’ hits the shelves today.