Coughing on Millionaire show 'would be silly'

A college lecturer told a jury today 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 the Royal Engineer 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 Charles 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 and, once there, how to win the Fastest Finger round.

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.