Soham victim’s family attacks policeman convicted of lying

THE parents of Soham murder victim Jessica Chapman yesterday condemned the man who acted as their family liaison officer after he was convicted of lying to police.

Brian Stevens, who became so close to the family that he was invited to give a reading at 10-year-old Jessica’s memorial service, was jailed for eight months yesterday after he was found guilty at the Old Bailey of conspiring to pervert the course of justice while under investigation for child porn charges.

In a statement released after the verdict, the Chapmans accused the detective constable of betraying them. “The use of our grief as part of Brian Stevens’s defence in his trial has left us with a sense of betrayal,” they said.

Following his conviction, Stevens was also accused by former colleagues of “playing the Soham card” in a desperate attempt to clear his name.

In the witness box he spoke emotionally of his intimacy with the Chapmans as he tried to present himself to the jury as an honest police officer.

He even recalled breaking the news to Sharon Chapman that her daughter had been “found dead” when, in fact, that terrible task fell to another liaison officer, PC Gaye Mallows.

Stevens’s lie was later exposed to the jury during a dramatic courtroom exchange.

Stevens, 43, gave police a false alibi when he was being investigated over allegations that he downloaded child pornography from the internet on to his laptop.

His close friend Louise Austin, 32, an executive case officer for the Crown Prosecution Service - with whom Stevens denies having a sexual relationship - provided the alibi and was also found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

She was given a six month sentence, suspended for two years.

The jury of five women and seven men took just under two days to reach their verdict at the end of the two-week trial.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Gerald Gordon said: “You will both lose the careers in which you have been involved for a number of years. In the course of them each of you has done public service. The verdicts would have “a dramatic effect not only upon you but also upon your family”.