WHEN Sophie and Ellie Brown discovered their dad had cheated on their mum, they were incensed.
Hell-bent on exacting revenge, they looked for the perfect opportunity to get their own back on the woman who helped wreak havoc on their seemingly perfect family.
So when they discovered naked pictures the woman had sent to their dad, they took their chance.
They first considered putting the images on Gumtree and advertising her sexual services for £5.
Instead they posted the shots on an escort site — alongside the phone number of their victim’s husband.
As acts of vengeance go, it was a particularly low blow — and one that backfired spectacularly.
Cop Sophie, 27, had to quit her job as a patrol officer while her sibling Ellie, 24, has been told she faces jail for posting private pictures without consent.
It’s a sad end to a nine-year saga that has blown their family apart and almost certainly wrecked the sisters’ futures.
‘Calculated effort’
Perhaps ironically, their dad Geoff and mum Sarah appear to have salvaged their marriage and remain in the family’s £300,000 home in upmarket Wetherby, West Yorks, where a Jaguar sits on the drive.
As far as anyone was aware they’ve been living as a happy family unit and are genuinely nice people
Neighbour
Sophie is believed to still live with her parents while Ellie has a home in Leeds.
Neighbours in the neat cul-de- sac expressed shock over the family’s self-inflicted crisis.
One said: “As far as anyone was aware they’ve been living as a happy family unit and are genuinely nice people. The eldest daughter has been living there but the youngest has her own place.
“It’s sad to see them in this predicament, with one in deep trouble and Sophie losing her police job, which she didn’t have for very long.”
Another neighbour told The Sun that Geoff and Sarah appeared to be a “happy normal couple” and that she is a “keen horsewoman and proud mum to her girls”.
It would be hard not to have sympathy for the girls had their actions not been so extreme.
On the surface, the family appeared to have a happy, rural life with holidays abroad, which included trips to India and Los Angeles, mother and daughter days out and a shared love of dogs and horses.
It all came crashing down in 2015 when Sarah Brown, 57, discovered husband Geoff, 61, was having an affair after she found intimate photos and videos of his mistress.
Yet it was seven years before her daughters’ act of revenge.
The sisters sent sexual images of their dad’s ex-mistress to her husband via WhatsApp and created rude posts about the woman on his business website.
They also sent a message to the couple’s unsuspecting daughter, who knew nothing of the fling, which read: “I will make sure your mum is never allowed to forget what she did to my family.”
It is unclear if the sisters had only just found out about their dad’s fling, but criminal psychologist Naomi Murphy said it is likely.
Some sort of rage has taken over. Something has happened to trigger this response
Criminal psychologist Naomi Murphy
She said: “What the sisters did was a very inflammatory response — an emotional reaction.
“It’s not the sort of thing you do if you’ve festered for seven years and I wonder if they had just happened upon the pictures of their victim.
“Some sort of rage has taken over. Something has happened to trigger this response.
“Sophie, being a police officer, would have known there would be implications to her actions but when people are angry they act in very irrational ways. Alcohol can make people act in retribution. But I don’t think that’s the case here because they’ve had seven years and, even if they drink, why now?”
‘Under stress’
Whatever spurred the sisters, their actions were described at Leeds Crown Court earlier this month as a “mean and calculated effort to cause distress”.
Ellie denied two counts of sharing private images without consent but admitted it shortly before she was to give evidence.
Judge Alexander Menary said it is “almost inevitable” she will be jailed at sentencing next month.
The court heard from the wronged husband in the case who said he could understand the siblings were “frustrated” about what happened but had no idea why they were so “hell-bent” on trying to damage his business.
While her sister faces time behind bars, Sophie was forced to quit West Yorkshire police in disgrace.
A police conduct hearing in April found her guilty of gross misconduct and said she would have been dismissed had she still been serving.
She was cleared of an unrelated allegation of racial discrimination, although she admitted using a racially offensive slur in phone messages to her sister on multiple occasions.
The panel heard how, while Ellie was instrumental in posting the images, she had been “initiated” and “encouraged” by Sophie.
It was told the sisters first considered posting the pictures on Gumtree and advertising sexual acts for £5.
Phone messages exchanged by the pair showed they switched to their escort site plan.
‘This is not revenge’
Police Federation representative Sgt Luke Stead told the hearing the Brown family had been “under stress” at the time of the incidents, which took place over a short period in August and September 2022.
Sophie interrupted the proceedings on multiple occasions and claimed: “This was not revenge.
“We were taking the mick out of her because of the photos she’d sent to my dad.”
Flustered Geoff Brown refused to comment on the case at the family home.
With his wife no doubt in pieces and one of his daughters facing jail while the other’s police career is in ruins, he might well wonder if his fling was really worth it.
