Michael Schumacher: Three guilty of trying to blackmail F1 legend's family after stealing pictures, videos and medical records

They threatened to release about 1,500 private photos and videos of Formula One legend Michael Schumacher on the dark web unless they were paid £12.5m - and also threatened to publish digital versions of Schumacher's medical records.

The 53-year-old ringleader, who had previous convictions, was sentenced to three years in prison at a district court in Wuppertal, western Germany, reports Sky News.

His son received a six-month suspended sentence and was fined £1,000. The third man, a former employee of a security firm hired to protect the Schumacher home in Switzerland, was given a two-year suspended sentence and fined £2,000 for aiding and abetting the other two.

Judge Birgit Neubert said the former security worker made the most significant contribution to the crime through breach of trust, according to the German dpa news agency.

Some 900 pictures and almost 600 videos of the family, plus the medical records were seized from the three, the public prosecutor's office said. A hard drive is still missing.

Lawyer Thilo Damm, for the Schumacher family, said they wanted a four-year prison term for the security guard and will appeal.

While the other two defendants made confessions, the security guard's lawyer denied the offences and demanded an acquittal, claiming his client had not stolen the data.

Schumacher, a seven-time Formula One world champion, has not been seen since he suffered a serious brain injury in a skiing accident in the French Alps in 2013.

Last year the 56-year-old’s family secured £166,000 in compensation from the publisher of a German magazine which printed an AI-generated "interview" with him.