This archive report was first published on 23 September 2019.
On September 23, 2019, a court in England handed down prison sentences to two individuals who had illegally accessed and shared CCTV footage of the post-mortem of footballer Emiliano Sala.
Emiliano Sala, a 28-year-old footballer, tragically died in a plane crash in the English Channel on January 21, 2019, while en route to Cardiff after completing his transfer from French side Nantes.
Sherry Bray, the 49-year-old director of a CCTV company, was sentenced to 14 months in prison for her role in accessing and sharing the footage. Her employee, Christopher Ashford, 62, received a five-month prison sentence for his involvement.
The footage in question was taken during Sala's post-mortem, which was conducted at a mortuary in Bournemouth, southern England, on February 7, 2019.
According to court records, Bray sent a message to Ashford before his night-shift, stating, "There's a nice one on the table for you to watch when you're next in." Both individuals replayed the clip, with Bray taking a picture of it on her mobile phone and sending it to her daughter before it was widely shared on social media.
Prosecutor Robert Welling stated that Bray and her staff would often watch and share mortuary CCTV footage, including autopsies.
Emiliano Sala's sister, Romina Sala, expressed her outrage over the incident, stating, "I'll never erase those images from my head." She also noted that her brother and mother would never forget about this, and it was hard for her to live with the image.
