Policewoman faces jail after Gerrard 'blackmail" plot

A corrupt policewoman is facing jail after seizing CCTV footage of a street bust-up to be used as a "tool to blackmail" Liverpool footballer Steven Gerrard.

Helen Jones, 33, a Pc with Merseyside Police, obtained the footage by "flashing her warrant card" to the manageress of a bank.

The incident involved friends of Gerrard, the then-England captain, becoming involved in a row with other men at a bar near his home in Formby, Merseyside, which spilled out on to the street and was caught on the CCTV cameras of a nearby bank.

Local businessman Paul Lloyd, 35, claimed Gerrard "threw the first punch" but the prosecution says the Liverpool midfielder was acting as a peacemaker, Preston Crown Court heard.

Jones, 33, admitted misconduct in a public office. She was off-duty and on a career break when she took the CCTV, but claimed she was only helping a friend of a friend who had been assaulted in the incident on August 4 2013.

But she went to the Lloyds branch and took the CCTV four days later for "criminal purposes", the prosecution claimed, and after a three-day trial of issue hearing, Judge Stuart Baker agreed.

He said Jones got the CCTV for "base motives" and described her as a "practised and persistent liar".

He bailed Jones, who has resigned from Merseyside Police, until she is sentenced in the new year but warned her there is a "high degree of likelihood" she will go to jail.

Judge Baker, in his ruling, told the court: "I regret to say that I found her to be a witness with no credibility.

Gerrard's lawyers and Liverpool FC became involved and police called in with their investigation leading to Jones's arrest.

She will be sentenced on January 9.