Lecturer denies helping quiz contestant cheat

A COLLEGE lecturer told a jury yesterday that he did not help an Army major cheat his way to the top prize on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? because it would have been “silly”.

Tecwen Whittock, who is accused of using coded coughs to guide Major Charles Ingram to the top prize, said such “criminal behaviour” carried with it the “likelihood I could get caught”.

“It would have been a very silly thing to do,” he told London’s Southwark Crown Court.

The father of four said he had been in touch with Major Ingram’s wife, Diana, in the run-up to her husband’s “hot seat” appearance, but there had been nothing underhand about it.

Their contact had been limited to telephone conversations and they never strayed beyond their shared interest in the popular TV show, how to maximise the chance of being selected as a contestant andhow to win the ‘fastest finger’ round.

Mr Whittock, 53, who lives at Heol-y-Gors, Whitchurch, Cardiff, and is head of business studies at Pontypridd College, south Wales, and the Ingrams, both 39, of High Street, Easterton, Wiltshire, each deny a single count of “procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception” on September 10, 2001.

The Crown has claimed the lecturer used a total of 19 strategic coughs to let the major know which of the four options on offer after a question was the correct answer.

Mr Whittock said he had suffered from a persistent cough for many years caused by hay fever and a dust allergy. More recently, he had also been diagnosed with asthma. On the day of the alleged cheating, when he was a fastest finger contestant and Maj Ingram was fielding questions from game show host Chris Tarrant, his throat problem had become progressively worse.

As his barrister, David Aubrey QC, took him through the officer’s performance, he told the court he had not known some of the answers, including the ones for £500,000 and £1 million, despite having coughed when Maj Ingram mentioned them.

“Any of the coughs I made were never made to give assistance or guidance to Major Ingram,” he insisted.

He said he had known the answers to two questions, despite not coughing as the major struggled with them.

Mr Whittock, who went on to win the fastest finger round after his co-defendant had pocketed the £1 million cheque, said his coughing did not get any better until he was allowed to down several glasses of water during a short break before his turn in front of the cameras. In the event, he failed to answer the £8,000 question correctly, forcing him to bow out with only his £1,000 “safe haven” winnings.