Jail for pair who leaked footballer autopsy pictures
THE two people who illegally accessed footage of footballer Emiliano Sala's body in the mortuary have been jailed by Swindon Crown Court.
Sherry Bray, 49, the director of Camera Security Services Limited in Chippenham, Wiltshire, was sent to prison for 14 months and her employee Christopher Ashford, 62, was jailed for five months.
The pair had both admitted three counts of computer misuse.
Bray also admitted perverting the course of justice by instructing Ashford to delete the post-mortem cameras from the live feed camera facility and deleting the mortuary image of Mr Sala from her phone.
Mr Sala had just signed for Cardiff City when the plane he was travelling in crashed into the Channel north of Alderney on January 21.
His body was recovered on February 6 and a post-mortem examination took place at Bournemouth Borough Mortuary the following day.
The court heard how Bray had sent a message to night worker Ashford before his shift saying 'There's a nice one on the table for you to watch when you're next in.'
Bray took a picture of the clip on her mobile phone and sent it to her daughter on Facebook Messenger, leading to it being widely shared on social media.
Ashford let a friend photograph the screenshot he had taken.
After realising that police were investigating, Bray deleted the file from her phone and asked Ashford to do the same.
Robert Welling, prosecuting, said Bray had a 'pivotal role' in setting a culture at her workplace where 'both she and members of staff would watch as and when autopsies were on the mortuary CCTV footage'.
Forensic pathologist Dr Basil Purdue said in a statement he was not aware the security cameras in the mortuary were able to film post-mortem examinations, and said had he known they were recording procedures, he would not have allowed it to take place. It was a 'flagrant breach of medical confidentiality', he said.
A victim impact statement from Romina Sala, the footballer's sister, called Bray and Ashford's actions 'wicked and evil', and said she first found out about the leak when pictures of her brother's body began appearing on Instagram.
'I cannot believe there are people so wicked and evil who could do that,' she said.
'I'll never erase those images from my head. My brother and mother can never forget about this.'
Nicholas Cotter, defending Bray, said: 'She fully accepts the distress and upset she's caused. It was never her intention for these photos to be put in the public sphere.
'She should have known better. But she looked in Pandora's box.'
Thomas Horder, defending Ashford, said the grandfather of four has since had his employment terminated by the company, calling his actions the 'biggest mistake he has ever made'.
'Not only is he deeply sorry and remorseful, but someone who is devastated and ashamed of his actions. He did not intend at any point to cause harm to anyone,' said the lawyer.
In jailing the two, Judge Peter Crabtree told them: 'You were both driven by morbid curiosity. You have both abused your positions in quite an appalling way.
'Wiltshire Police previously said that Mr Sala's family, who live in Argentina, had been kept fully updated during the investigation.
Anthony Johns, senior crown prosecutor for the CPS Wessex Complex Casework Unit, said: 'It is impossible to imagine why anyone would wish to record or view these sorts of images in such a flagrant breach of confidentiality and human decency.'
