Emiliano Sala's sister slams 'evil' pair who accessed mortuary footage of late football star

Christopher Ashford, 62, and Sherry Bray, 49, are to be sentenced for accessing the footage.
Jacob Jarvis20 September 2019
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Emiliano Sala's sister has described a CCTV company director and her employee as "evil" after they illegally accessed images of his post-mortem.

Romina Sala said her family was left devastated after images of her brother's body began to leak on to Instagram, just days after being recovered from the English Channel.

On Friday, a victim impact statement from Argentina-based Ms Sala was read to Swindon Crown Court, where Sherry Bray, 49, and her employee Christopher Ashford, 62, are to be sentenced for accessing the footage.

Ms Sala said: "I have seen photos of Emiliano's body leaked on Instagram, and I cannot believe there are people so wicked and evil who could do that."

Sala, 28, had just signed for Cardiff City when the plane he was travelling in crashed into the English Channel
AFP/Getty Images

Detailing her actions after seeing the images, she added: "I phoned Emiliano's agent and told him what was circulating on the internet. I called our brother, Dario, and he did not want to see the photos.

"I tried to keep images off social networks. My mother could not see those horrible photos.

"I was sad as people were making jokes about it.

"I'll never erase the images from my head. My brother and mother can never forget about this.

"It's hard for me to live with this image."

Mr Sala, 28, had just signed for Cardiff City when the plane he was travelling in crashed into the English Channel, north of Guernsey, on January 21.

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

Bray, of Corsham, and Ashford, of Calne, each admitted three counts of computer misuse at Swindon Crown Court in August.

Bray also admitted perverting the course of justice by instructing Ashford to "delete your pics", deleting the post-mortem cameras from the live feed camera facility and deleting the mortuary image of Mr Sala from her phone.

There sentence is due to be detailed next week.

Reporting by PA.

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