Playboy who tried to blackmail the royals died from cocktail of drugs
A PLAYBOY con artist who once tried to blackmail the Royal family over a gay sex tape killed himself after taking a cocktail of drugs on Christmas Eve, an inquest heard.
Ian Strachan, 40, was jailed for five years in 2008 for demanding £ 50,000 for video tapes that showed an aide to a member of the Royal family claiming his boss had committed a sex act on him.
The judge at his trial described the attempted extortion as ‘dirty, filthy and hideous’.
The fantasist reportedly had two heart attacks as a result of cocaine use last year, the inquest heard. He had also become addicted to prescription painkillers and other drugs and his weight ballooned from 11st to 17st.
The inquest heard he used three aliases to get multiple repeat prescriptions from doctors and clinics. Strachan also went to hospitals, including the Chelsea & Westminster, St George’s, St Mary’s, the Royal Brompton and Kingston to get hold of the vast quantities of drugs.
He was also drinking, regularly using cannabis and taking cocaine every day.
Strachan had his left leg amputated below the knee and shattered his pelvis in 2014. He told friends he hurt it leaping from a window trying to escape police, but his mother said it was a suicide attempt.
He died at his short-term rented flat in Marylebone, London, on Christmas Eve last year from respiratory failure due to multi-drug poisoning eight days after his 40th
‘Champagne lifestyle’
birthday. At Westminster Coroner’s Court, assistant coroner Shirley Radcliffe concluded he had killed himself.
He had cocaine and an array of prescription drugs in his blood, including morphine, oxycodone, diazepam, epilepsy drugs, sleeping drug zoplicone and Viagra.
He was born Paul Ian Adalsteinsson in Aberdeen in 1976 and claimed to be a property developer and lawyer to party with the social elite. He appeared to be living a champagne lifestyle, claiming to have inherited a massive sum and to be friends with Princes William and Harry.
The night before his death, the inquest heard that he had threatened to kill his mother Elizabeth Stratton – with whom he sometimes lived – and himself.
Strachan texted her at 1am saying: ‘You want a body you have got one, it will be a different day when you wake up tomorrow, I won’t be here’.