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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A former Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer plead guilty in court Wednesday on eight counts of taking inappropriate pictures of high school students.

WSOC-TV reported that detectives arrested Tom Allen in February five months after they began investigating allegations that he had taken the pictures during the summer program at the Police Academy.

The guilty plea was part of a plea deal.

Allen will avoid jail time and will not have to register as a sex offender. However, he is not allowed to have contact with girls under 18 while he’s on probation, the judge says.

“First and foremost I want to take responsibility for what I’ve done. I violated that trust and I take responsibility for that,” Allen said in court.

Before his sentencing, a mother of one of the victims told the judge, “I’m asking you as a parent, we don’t want any other children to be abused on this way.”

“He’s already been punished. He’s lost his career,” said Allen’s attorney before sentencing.

In Februrary, CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe said Allen had worked with as many as 700 students during that summer program and the department’s Explorer program, and that detectives have interviewed about 180 of them.