Two in court over accessing footage of dead football star’s post-mortem
Two people have appeared in court charged with accessing CCTV footage of the post-mortem examination of footballer Emiliano Sala.
Sala, 28, 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.
Wiltshire Police later confirmed they were investigating an image on social media that purported to show Sala’s remains during that examination.
On Wednesday, Sherry Bray, 48, and Christopher Ashford, 62, appeared before Swindon Magistrates’ Court charged in connection with the force’s investigation.
Ashford, of Calne, faces six charges of causing a computer to perform a function to secure “unauthorised access” to a program or data, contrary to the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
Charges allege he “operated the closed circuit television equipment at the Bournemouth Mortuary and thereby caused the post-mortem of Emiliano Sala to be replayed by using the play-back facility”.
Bray, of Corsham, is charged with three counts of causing a computer to perform a function to secure “unauthorised access” to a program or data, contrary to the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
She is also accused of operating the CCTV equipment to cause the post-mortem examination to be replayed on February 8.
It is alleged she perverted the course of public justice by instructing 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 and to have deleted the postmortem image of Sala from her mobile phone.
Neither Ashford or Bray entered pleas in relation to the charges against them.
Dr David Whetham, chair of the bench, adjourned the case to be scheduled for a hearing at Swindon Crown Court on August 9.