'Millionaire' defendant suffered from dust allergy

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A man accused of using coded coughs to indicate answers to a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire had a convincing explanation, a medical expert said yesterday.

Professor Alan Morris said three conditions caused chronic coughs, and Tecwen Whittock had two of them on the night he was accused of helping Major Charles Ingram win £1m on the television quiz show.

Professor Morris, whose evidence was interrupted at one stage by a juror's coughing, said tests and the college lecturer's medical history showed he suffered from a year-round dust allergy and hay fever. He also tested positive for asthma.

"He had a very convincing story to me of someone who provides a cogent history of what an allergic type person complains of," he told Southwark Crown Court in London. "So it is entirely compatible with medical evidence that he would have a chronic cough."

Mr Whittock, 53, of Whitchurch, Cardiff, is accused, with Major Ingram and his wife Diana, both 39, of Easterton, Wiltshire, of "procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception" on 10 September 2001. They all deny the charge.

The Crown claims Mr Whittock used 19 strategic coughs to let Major Ingram know the answers to questions in the quiz. The court has heard that despite the allegedly suspicious coughs attributed to Mr Whittock while Major Ingram was answering questions on his way to the jackpot, there was no sign of the problem after he was invited to take the hot seat. Professor Morris, who is head of the European respiratory task force on chronic coughing, said: "I expect he was concentrating heavily while he was there."

David Aubrey, counsel for Mr Whittock, asked: "What effect does that have in a person who has a persistent cough?"

Professor Morris said: "I would suggest that if he was concentrating heavily ... and not sitting there waiting in the wings, you might well expect there to be a diminution in the coughing." The case continues.