Soham detective convicted of lying to police

Soham detective Brian Stevens was today found guilty at the Old Bailey of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He was sentenced to eight months in jail.

His friend, Crown Prosecution Service case worker Louise Austin, was also convicted of the same offence.

Stevens, 43, who was liaison officer to the family of Soham murder victim Jessica Chapman, was accused of giving police a false alibi to cover times when he was alleged to have downloaded “questionable images” on his Samsung laptop computer.

Stevens lied to police by saying he was staying at the home of his friend Miss Austin, 32, when the images were downloaded and that he did not have his computer with him at the time.

Miss Austin gave a statement to police supporting the alibi.

The jury of five women and seven men began their deliberations at 12.20pm on Wednesday at the end of a two-week trial.