Sarah documents thief jailed

Branscombe received £5,000 for the documents

A computer expert from Brighton has been jailed for a year for stealing documents and photographs relating to the Sarah Payne murder inquiry.

Christopher Charles Branscombe, 21, pleaded guilty to taking the papers, including a photo of Sarah's dead body, from the solicitor who defended Roy Whiting, and then selling them to various media organisations.

The prosecution claimed Branscombe, formerly from Milton Road in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, had used the money to pay off drugs debts.

Sentencing him, Judge Richard Brown said he had potentially jeopardised the trial of Roy Whiting who was convicted of the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne in December last year.

Sarah's murder provoked national interest

Branscombe met reporters from the Sun, Mirror, and Express newspapers who later paid him cash for documents relating to Whiting's previous conviction for kidnapping a nine-year-old girl in 1995.

He also made contact with a reporter from the Daily Mail but was arrested before any transaction could take place, Lewes Crown Court heard.

No newspaper paid money for photographs of Sarah's body taken at the site where she was found in July 2000.

Drugs habit

Branscombe pleaded guilty to stealing the documents from solicitors Alistair Harper & Co in Haywards Heath, at an earlier appearance before Haywards Heath magistrates.

He had been working on a customer-billing computer program at the law firm.

At the time, Branscombe was a co-director of a separate computer company based at the law firm's offices, which had been set up by solicitor Alistair Harper.

The court had heard that Branscombe had stolen the items to feed his cocaine habit, which was costing him £1,000 every two or three days.

Newspaper payments

Crispin Aylett, prosecuting, told the court that Branscombe first made contact with The Sun newspaper which later paid him £1,000 for documents relating to Whiting's earlier conviction.

He said: "The first payment of £1,000 was spent on a watch and a coat and the second payment of £1,500 was used to pay for drugs and to take a group of friends to a party in Birmingham.

"He also contacted The Mirror and met a reporter from there in a bar in Haywards Heath. He was paid £2,000 by The Mirror and was also paid £1,000 from the Daily Express.

"The defendant was engaged in selling material up until his arrest. He had made contact with a reporter from the Daily Mail."