Sarah Jessica Parker police chief found guilty

The couple's surrogate mother gave birth to twin girls in June

A police chief accused of scheming to sell items from the home of a surrogate mother used by Sarah Jessica Parker has been found guilty on three counts.

A jury in Ohio found Martins Ferry Chief Barry Carpenter guilty of receiving stolen property, theft in office and tampering with evidence.

But Carpenter was acquitted on charges of burglary and unauthorised use of property or services.

He faces a maximum 10 years in jail when sentenced on 30 December.

Suspended officer Barry must stay in his mother's home and be monitored by a GPS device until he returns to court.

Ultrasound photographs

"The bottom line is that there is a victim in this case whose privacy was so gravely intruded upon," Ohio Assistant Attorney General Emily Laube said at Belmont County Court.

"If you can't trust the police, who can you trust?" she added.

Prosecutors alleged that Mr Carpenter broke into Michelle Ross's home in May and took items related to her pregnancy and the surrogacy - Ms Ross gave birth to twin girls for Parker and her husband Matthew Broderick in June.

Barry admits that he acted very stupidly, but denies that he acted criminally Dennis McNamara, Barry Carpenter's lawyer

Mr Carpenter was also accused of plotting with another police chief, Chad Dojack, to sell the items to celebrity photographers.

Dojack, of Bridgeport county, Ohio, will go on trial in January on two counts of complicity to burglary and one count of complicity to receiving stolen property.

Mr Carpenter had testified that he went into Ms Ross's home to check it because he saw a door open.

He said he took photos of a surrogacy file that had two ultrasound pictures in it and of a plaster cast of a pregnant stomach but did not take anything from the home.

He admitted he showed the photo of the cast to paparazzi and to several other people but said he never discussed selling any items to photographers.

Items missing

"Barry admits that he acted very stupidly, but denies that he acted criminally," Mr Carpenter's lawyer said during the closing arguments.

Ms Ross testified that when she returned to her home after staying in a hotel, she realised that ultrasound photos, surrogacy files and tax information had gone.

She also noticed that photographs had been rifled through and the plaster cast, made when she was pregnant with her own son, had been misplaced.

Messages seeking comment were left for Parker and Broderick's spokesman Simon Halls and Mr Carpenter's lawyer, Dennis McNamara.

Actress Parker, famed for her starring role in hit TV series Sex and the City, is married to actor Matthew Broderick, best-known for playing the lead role in comedy film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

The US couple have a six-year-old son James and their twin daughters, Marion Loretta Elwell and Tabitha Hodge, were born to surrogate Ms Ross in June.