A woman who watched the post mortem of Emiliano Sala on security cameras has been warned to expect a jail term.

Sherry Bray, 49, admitted a series of computer misuse offences and perverting the course of justice by deleting photos on her phone.

And her colleague at a Chippenham security firm, 62-year-old Christopher Ashford, has also been told he could be jailed after pleading guilty to the computer matters.

But Swindon Crown Court heard the pair may not have been responsible for the image which was posted online, and that may have been done by another colleague.

Rob Welling, prosecuting, said the person who actually did that may never be found and could have been looking over Bray’s shoulder as she was watching the screen.

He said the picture which was seen online was taken about 90 seconds before the first image taken by Bray.

Mr Welling added that an aggravating feature of her case was that, as a manager, she ‘allowed a culture to prevail where these sort of things could easily happen’.

Bray, of Charles Street, Corsham, accessed the CCTV system at Bournemouth Mortuary to watch the footballer’s post mortem on Thursday February 7.

The following day she caused the footage to be played back and the following week deleted pictures from her mobile phone.

She also admitted watching another procedure at the same mortuary in April last year over the computer system.

On that occasion she viewed footage, either live or on playback, a post mortem on Andrew Latcham, a grandfather whose body was found in a Dorset river that month.

She pleaded guilty to three computer misuse offences and one count of perverting the course of justice.

That charge related to her sending a message to Ashford saying ‘delete your pics’ as well as removing images from her own hone and deleting the post mortem live feed camera facility.

Ashford, of Page Close, Calne, admitted repeatedly using the CCTV’s playback feature to watch the post mortem.

He watched the footage at 9.40pm and 11.23pm on Saturday February 9, at 2.32am and 6.58 the following day and at 1.26am and 11.35pm on Monday February 11.

Judge Peter Crabtree adjourned the case to Friday September 20 so the probation service can compile presentence reports and released them on unconditional bail.

The judge said “They will both get reports. With Mrs Bray’s case for the perverting the starting point is custody and not a short period.

“It is a custody starting point, It is important that they cooperate with probation in the preparation of the reports. I am not promising anything in the seriousness of this case.”

Prosecutors said they would also use the time to get impact statements from the family liaison officer dealing with Sala’s relations.

Argentinian international Sala died after the place carrying him from France to Cardiff came down in the English Channel in January.

A post mortem was carried out at Holly Tree Lodge Mortuary in Dorset on February 7 and a week later police became aware of a still on Twitter showing the dead striker.