A former policewoman has been jailed for her part in a blackmail plot against Liverpool FC captain Steven Gerrard.

Helen Jones, 33, of Colchester Close, Chatham, was sentenced to 22 months in prison at Preston Crown Court today.

The former Merseyside police officer was on a career break when she illegally seized CCTV footage of a street brawl involving the Liverpool skipper and businessman Paul Lloyd in August 2013.

The court heard Gerrard was acting as a peacemaker and had not behaved improperly.

Jones admitted misconduct at a hearing in November last year when judge Stuart Baker said he was satisfied Jones obtained the footage “to enable someone else, whether it was to be Paul Lloyd or another person, to use it in any way that person chose to use it”.

She was due to be sentenced in January, but the hearing was postponed due to delays in preparing pre-sentence reports.

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