Two in court over leaked Emiliano Sala mortuary picture

Wales
Wednesday 10 July 2019 at 1:21pm

Credit: PA

A man and a woman have appeared in court over the alleged leaking of a photograph showing the body of Cardiff City footballer Emiliano Sala.

The Argentinian footballer had just signed for Cardiff City when the plane he was travelling in crashed into the English Channel on January 21.

His body was recovered on February 6 and a post-mortem examination took place at Bournemouth Mortuary the following day.

Sherry Bray, 48, and Christopher Ashford, 62, have been charged with accessing CCTV footage of the post-mortem examination of the footballer.

Credit: PA

The pair from Wiltshire appeared before Swindon Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Ashford faces six charges of causing a computer to perform a function to secure "unauthorised access" to a program or data and Bray charged with three charges of the same.

Ashford allegedly operated the CCTV at Bournemouth Mortuary and caused footage to be replayed, while Bray is thought to have recorded it.

She is also charged with sending an "offensive/indecent/obscene/menacing message" of Sala. The court heard she told Ashford to "delete your pics" on February 12 and deleted the post-mortem cameras at the Bournemouth Mortuary from the live feed camera facility the following day.

She also deleted the post-mortem image of Sala from her mobile phone.

Neither entered pleas in relation to the charges against them and the case has been adjourned until August 9.