THE sister of footballer Emiliano Sala has called a CCTV company director and her employee “wicked and 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 he was recovered from the English Channel.

On Friday, a victim impact statement from Argentina-based Ms Sala was read out loud in the crown court where Sherry Bray, 49, and her employee Christopher Ashford, 62, were being sentenced for accessing the footage.

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 the Holly Tree Lodge Mortuary in Bournemouth the following day.

Sherry Bray, 49, the director of Camera Security Services Limited in Chippenham, Wiltshire, and her employee Christopher Ashford, 62, accessed footage of the procedure being conducted on Mr Sala.

They replayed the clip before Bray took a picture of it on her mobile phone and sent it to a family member on Facebook Messenger, leading to it being widely shared on social media.

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.

“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.”

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.

A sentencing hearing for the pair is due to conclude next week at Swindon Crown Court.