The defendants each pleaded not guilty to the charge of
procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception. The
Crown Court trial was presided by judge Geoffrey Revlin and became known as "The
Millionaire Trial". The prosecution first accused the Ingrams of using pagers hidden on Charles' body on the first day of filming which would vibrate at the correct answer and adduced records from Diana's mobile phone to Whittock's. The prosecution called a contestant, Larry Whitehurst, who stated that he had been watching Whittock from across the studio in his Fastest Finger First (FFF) seat, had noticed his pattern of coughing, and had suspicions that he was involved in cheating. He claimed that when it came to the £1million question, Ingram was waiting for Whittock to cough when "
googol" was mentioned; he coughed as he had predicted. The floor manager stated that the production staff had taken the unusual step of having Charles searched after the recording because they were suspicious he was cheating using hidden pagers, but nothing was found. A sound analyst affirmed that 192 coughs were heard during the filming and the sound supervisor said 19 "significant" coughs had come from near a live microphone which he believed to be one of the FFF microphones on the side where Whittock was sitting. The supervisor also claimed that she had noticed the Ingrams' attitudes change in their dressing rooms after the win going from a mood of elation to them having an argument. Charles took the stand and denied arguing with Diana after winning. He claimed he knew the answers to questions 11 through 14, and deduced the answer to the final question, where he relied on his maths and physics
A-levels for the answer. When he was shown a recording of question 14 where a cough was heard and followed by a whispered "No!" after Charles had mentioned he was going to give Berlin as his answer, members of the public in the gallery started laughing which led to the judge threatening to clear the courtroom. He said he was devastated when he had heard of Diana's calls to Whittock. He said that after the allegations becoming public he had started taking medicine as his car had been vandalised, his cat shot at, and "cheat" shouted at him in public. When asked why his cough apparently disappeared when he played his game of
Millionaire straight afterwards, he said he drank several glasses of water in the intermission. He also stated that the phone call between his and Diana's phones lasted less than five minutes. The defence questioned why Whittock would agree to such a quickly devised scheme, particularly as he might cough involuntarily at any time. the judge asked the jury if Charles Ingram was "a genuine millionaire or a fraudster". One juror was later discharged for an unknown reason. The jury initially declared that they found Charles and Whittock guilty but Diana not guilty. The judge said that was not an acceptable verdict as all three were co-defendants and the prosecution's case relied on Diana's actions influencing those of Charles and Whittock. After retiring for a second time, the jury declared all three guilty of the charge. The Ingrams received an 18-month
suspended sentence and a fine of £15,000 plus £10,000 for costs. Whittock received 6months less and a fine of £10,000 plus £7,500 for costs. == Appeal ==