Louise Austin was given a six month suspended sentence for conspiring to pervert the course of justice to allow Brian Stevens to escape porn charges.

Stevens, 43, who helped the family of one of the murdered Soham schoolgirls, was jailed for the same offence. Austin was suspended from her position as executive officer with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) September 2002.

Before their trial, a CPS spokesman said it had a strong case against Stevens and Austin. "The Crown maintain they blatantly attempted to deceive the courts by concocting a story in order to provide Brian Stevens with a false alibi. This was a serious breach of trust by Louise Austin and an abuse of her position. The public has a right to expect the highest standards of professional behaviour from CPS employees." adding "Following this trial action is now being taken in accordance with the service's disciplinary procedures."

Stevens (who was jailed for eight months) was suspended by Cambridgeshire Police and had to face his own disciplinary hearing.

Stevens had been a family liaison officer for the family of murder victim Jessica Chapman. He was first arrested in 2002, as part of Operation Ore, the UK arm of a worldwide swoop on suspected internet paedophiles. Indecent images of children were found on his laptop but the court case was dropped for reasons that had nothing to do with the alibi, but three weeks later he and Austin were arrested for perverting the course of justice.