CCTV a ‘tool to blackmail’ Liverpool captain Gerrard

CCTV footage of a street fracas involving Liverpool footballer Steven Gerrard was taken by an off-duty policewoman to be used as a “tool for blackmail,” a court heard.

The Premier League star, then captain of England, acted as peacemaker when his friends became involved in a row with another group of men at a bar near his home in Formby, Merseyside, on August 4, 2013.

The incident, following an evening out to celebrate Gerrard’s testimonial at Liverpool FC, spilled out onto the street and was captured on a bank’s CCTV nearby, Preston Crown Court heard.

Days later Helen Jones, 33, on a career break from Merseyside Police, then went to the Lloyd’s Branch in Formby, “flashing her warrant card” to get a copy of the CCTV footage.

This was to be used as a “tool to blackmail” people involved in the incident, the court heard.

Gerrard and a friend, Lee McPartland, then suffered “demands and threats” and among an air of “menace” were told the footage of the incident could be sold to the press.

Jones, from Colchester Close, Chatham, Kent, a police officer of eight years, subsequently resigned from the force and was arrested for conspiracy to commit blackmail and misconduct in a public office.

The blackmail charge was later dropped but she admitted the second offence at an earlier hearing.

Jones said her motives were “philanthropic” and she only took the CCTV footage to help a friend of a friend who had been assaulted and was assured the footage would be handed to a solicitor.

Yesterday she faced a further hearing for a judge to decide whether her conduct was not only illegal but, as the prosecution say, for “criminal purposes”.

The hearing continues.