This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A “sex-obsessed” former police officer who filmed a couple having sex, and other people sunbathing naked, from his force helicopter has been jailed for a year.

Sentencing Adrian Pogmore, Judge Peter Kelson QC told him: “You, quite literally, considered yourself above the law.”

Footage shot by Pogmore and screened at Sheffield crown court included graphic scenes of a couple having sex in a range of positions on their patio.

Other footage showed a woman sunbathing naked in her garden, two naturists sitting outside their caravan and a couple lying naked on sunloungers outside their home.

The court heard Pogmore, 51, was “a swinging and sex-obsessed air observer” who was referred to as the “team deviant” by other members of the air support unit at South Yorkshire police.

On the day his trial was due to start last month, Pogmore, of Whiston, Rotherham, admitted to four counts of misconduct in a public office. He has been fired by South Yorkshire police.

Two other police officers and two helicopter pilots were tried and cleared of the same offence after telling a jury they had no idea what Pogmore was doing with the high-powered camera on board the aircraft.

Kelson told Pogmore, who was in tears as he was sentenced: “In short, you used a £2m helicopter which costs something like $1,000 [sic] an hour to run to advance your own sexual curiosities when it should have been detecting crime.”

“Instead of deterring and detecting crime, you were committing crime.”



The judge said Pogmore’s actions were “offensive and invasive” and called him a “rogue police officer”.

“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.

“You spied on and recorded these naked people from a height of 1,000ft.

“You, quite literally, considered yourself above the law. Nobody is above the law.”



The judge told Pogmore his actions had severely damaged public confidence in the police and referred to a personal statement by one of the women who was filmed without her knowledge.

The woman said that since she heard about the filming she found it very difficult to deal with the police as she was not sure which officers may have viewed the footage.

She said: “If you can’t trust the police, who can you trust?” The incident had had a big impact on her life and left her paranoid, she added.

However, the judge said he had also taken into account Pogmore’s 22-year police service, which included a number of commendations, including one for saving the life of an 11-year-old boy.

Kelson said he understood the impact the case had had on the officer’s family after “something in the region of 15 to 20 minutes of misconduct in a 22-year police career”.

The judge said he found it an “immensely difficult” sentencing exercise: “I’m as acutely aware as anyone else that without the thin blue line this country would fall into anarchy.”

But he said it was a “gross abuse of trust” and he had to impose a custodial sentence.

The judge pointed out he was aware the 13th century law of misconduct in a public office was “very much under review” and had been criticised by the lord chief justice.

Earlier, John Ryder QC, defending, told the judge he accepted that there was no culture of misconduct within the air support unit but there was a macho culture he would categorise as “coarse locker room humour rather than anything more sinister”.

Ryder said Pogmore had always admitted what he had done, was visibly upset about the impact on those he filmed and “feels a strong sense of shame”.

“He fully appreciates the seriousness of his behaviour,” Ryder said.

“It was utterly irresponsible. It was thoughtless and foolish. But it was not motivated by anything more sinister than that.”

He said Pogmore and his family had suffered “nothing short of humiliation”.

But Ryder added: “It is his fault, he accepts that.”