Coughs 'raised Millionaire doubts'

Coughs 'raised Millionaire doubts'

Mr and Mrs Ingram deny the charge

An Army major's £1m win on the quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire aroused suspicion after a series of coughs were picked up by studio microphones, a court has heard.

Charles Ingram is accused with his wife Diana and a college lecturer of tricking game show host Chris Tarrant into signing the £1m cheque.

Mr Ingram and his co-accused implemented a system to enable him to decide which of four answers was correct, it is alleged.

The soldier, who serves with the Royal Engineers, had to sign a form before his appearance agreeing to "play by the rules", said Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting.

The court heard that a series of coughs were picked up by studio microphones during the show.

You've just won £1m

Chris Tarrant

Click here to read Major Ingram's route to the top prize

After Major Charles Ingram had been presented with the £1m cheque by Chris Tarrant, production staff decided the coughs had come from an alleged accomplice.

Further inquiries by police pointed to Tecwen Whittock - who was sitting just a few seats from the soldier - as a possible culprit, the court heard.

Mr Hilliard explained the studio, with an audience of around 200 people, was equipped with a string of microphones.

Ten of them were for the benefit of the "fastest finger" hopefuls, one of whom would be picked to occupy the "hot seat".

Other microphones were for the contestant and Mr Tarrant.

Cough analysis

"It goes without saying that in any large group of people... you will probably hear a lot of coughs, splutters, throat clearing, or whatever," the barrister told the jury at Southwark Crown Court.

He said the programme's sound supervisor, Kevin Duff, analysed the various coughs that had been recorded during the show.

Mr Duff noted 19 he later described as "coughs made on mike" - and used signal strengths to narrow it down to seats one to five of the "fastest finger" microphones.

One way of increasing your chances of winning would be if you could set up some form of signal from someone else

Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting

Mr Hilliard said: "Mr Whittock was one of those - he was at seat number three.

"Mr Whittock admits that he had a cough at the time and a number of people in the audience noticed it.

"You can make your minds up as... to whether Mr Ingram noticed these particular coughs."

All three defendants are charged with procuring a valuable security by deception on 10 September.

Mr Ingram, 39, and his 38-year-old nursery nurse wife, of Easterton, Wiltshire, and Mr Whittock, 53, of Whitchurch, Cardiff, who is head of business studies at Pontypridd College, south Wales, deny the charge.

Tecwen Whittock is also accused

The jury was shown a copy of Mr Ingram progressing towards the £1m jackpot - a programme that was never shown on television after the producers suspected a plot of deception.

At the start of the unedited recording Mr Ingram told Tarrant: "To be honest, I will be happy to walk away with anything."

Mr Ingram easily passed through the first few questions, but used up his "ask the audience" and "phone a friend" lifelines before recording ended for the night.

The following night Mr Ingram told Tarrant: "I was a bit defensive on the last show and I started to talk myself out of answers that I should know.

"This time I'm going on a counter-attack."

Aristotle answer

But he struggled on the first question of the night - question number eight out of 15.

Asked who was the second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy, he pondered the four possibilities: Adnan Khashoggi, Ronald Reagan, Aristotle Onassis, or Rupert Murdoch.

On two occasions, when he said the name Aristotle Onassis out loud, a cough was heard on the tape played in court, coming from one of the contestants waiting for their turn at the "fastest finger" round.

Mr Ingram selected Aristotle Onassis, which was the correct answer, taking him up to £8,000.

The trial, before Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC, is due to last four weeks.