LONDON -- Prosecutors say a British police helicopter crew filmed people having sex and sunbathing naked.

The police are accused of using the aircraft's powerful video camera to film members of the public.

Prosecutor Richard Wright said Tuesday the filming was a "gross violation" of the victims' privacy. He said the public has a right to hope that police helicopters are being used to keep communities safe, not to film sex acts from the air.

Get Breaking News Delivered to Your Inbox

The case against five men in Sheffield Crown Court relies in part on a graphic, eight-minute film consisting of footage from the South Yorkshire Police helicopter.

One police officer, 50-year-old Adrian Pogmore, has pleaded guilty to misconduct. Four other men -- officers Matthew Lucas, 42, and Lee Walls, 47, and pilots Matthew Loosemore, 45, and Malcolm Reeves, 64 -- deny the charges, according to the BBC.

A woman who was recorded sunbathing naked with her daughters in a garden in 2007 called the incident "a complete and utter violation of my privacy," the BBC reports.

"It makes me feel sick to think that this took place," she said.

Prosecutors say the couple filmed having sex were friends of Pogmore.

Wright said it was "no coincidence" that the helicopter flew above "while they brazenly put on a show," according to the BBC.

At one point in footage from July 2008, the naked woman waved at the aircraft.