LONDON (Reuters) - A former police officer who filmed naked sunbathers and a couple having sex from a helicopter in northern England was sentenced to 12 months in prison on Tuesday.
Adrian Pogmore, 50, used a South Yorkshire police helicopter camera to shoot footage of a mother and her daughters sunbathing naked in their garden, naturists at a campsite and a couple he knew who were having sex on their patio.
"You quite literally considered yourself above the law," Judge Peter Kelson told Pogmore according to the BBC.
"So strong were your sexual urges that you were willing to take, and did take, substantial risks of being detected by your colleagues in the helicopter at the time," Kelson said as he sentenced him at Sheffield Crown Court.
Pogmore had pleaded guilty to four counts of misconduct in a public office at an earlier hearing and had already been fired from the police for discreditable conduct after an internal investigation.
"This kind of behaviour by an officer is completely unacceptable, and the outcome for Mr Pogmore is consistent with the decision we took in 2015 to dismiss him from the service," said Mark Roberts, Deputy Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police.
Two other police officers and two pilots who were in the helicopter when some of the footage was captured were cleared of misconduct last week.
Pogmore was the only one present on each of the occasions that filming took place, a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said following the acquittals.
Internal investigations by South Yorkshire Police into the conduct of the two other officers and pilots are ongoing.