A press photographer who caught a pickpocket on film has helped secure her conviction.

Cambridge Evening News snapper Keith Jones snatched shots of a 12-year-old girl reaching into a shopper's handbag back in April, and she has now been found guilty of theft by Cambridge magistrates.

While out on another job in the city centre, Keith spotted two girls acting suspiciously and after following them he saw one of them attempting to get into a shopper's handbag - which he captured on film.

Keith's photographs were published by the evening paper under the headline "Caught in the Act" in the hope of bringing the culprits to justice, together with another story warning shoppers about the problem of pickpockets.

And despite claims from the girl's defence that there was a lack of proper identification and sufficient evidence as nothing had been found in the girl's possession, magistrates said they were satisfied that the defendant was the girl in the photograph and found her guilty of theft.

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