A British court ruling barring the naming of a minor royal involved in an alleged sex-and-drugs blackmail plot is being widely ignored on the internet, demonstrating the waning power of strict UK gagging orders in the information age.

At least a dozen websites in the United States and Australia - including some well-established news sites and weblogs - have named the person said to be at the centre of the allegations. British media organisations or sites are not allowed to publish any details that could identify witnesses or alleged victims.

The person in question, who has been identified as a minor member of the Royal Family who does not discharge public duties, was also named on American television last night.

Two men are being held in London jails over the alleged plot. They have been named as Ian Strachan, 30, a socialite, who is being held at Belmarsh High Security Prison, and Sean McGuigan, 40, from Battersea.

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British law is prohibiting the publication of names everyone knows

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Scotland Yard was called in to investigate the alleged £50,000 plot when staff of the Royal Family member became concerned about the activities of certain individuals.

An undercover detective from the Metropolitan Police kidnap and blackmail unit, along with a representative of the Royal Family member, went to the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, London, and met the alleged blackmailers on September 11. It appears that some video material, involving a royal aide talking freely about his claims to know society secrets, was shown.

There has been much speculation over the content of that videotape, but a lawyer for Mr Strachan yesterday refuted a suggestion that it showed the member of the Royal Family receiving oral sex.

Giovanni di Stefano, a Rome-based lawyer whose past clients included Saddam Hussein and Harold Shipman, said that the royal aide in the film does describe having a sexual liaison with an MP. There is also said to be a scene purporting to show drug-taking.

Mr Di Stefano denied, however, that his client had been involved in blackmail and had not accepted any cash from newspapers which had seen the tape.

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