BREAKING: 12 months in jail for chopper copper who filmed couple having sex

Adrian Pogmore (51), of Guilthwaite Crescent, Whiston, was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court this morning after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to four counts of misconduct in public office.

Four of his crewmates were cleared of the same charge on Friday following a three-week trial.

Pogmore, a police air observer who was sacked after a disciplinary hearing, used the South Yorkshire Police helicopter on four occasions to film people, including a couple having sex in their garden and two women sunbathing naked.

Two police officers, Matthew Lucas (43), of Chapeltown, and Lee Walls (48), of Southlands Way, Aston, current pilot Matthew Loosemore (45), of Auckley in Doncaster, and retired pilot Malcolm Reeves (64), of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, were acquitted of all charges.

The four cleared men cried as the jury foreman read out the verdicts and there were cries from family members in the public gallery who hugged each other.

They were all in the South Yorkshire Police helicopter when Pogmore shot the footage as the aircraft flew over the county but said he had been acting alone when he used the chopper’s high powered camera to film people, including a couple having sex in their garden.

The trial heard the couple knew Pogmore and said in a statement they thought the crew had been watching them but had not set up the scenario with Pogmore or agreed to be recorded.

Former camera operator Pogmore was described as “swinging and sex-obsessed” during the trial.

Charges were prompted by footage of sunbathers and amorous couples – recorded between 2007 and 2012 – being found in Pogmore’s desk in a police station in March 2015

Speaking after the verdicts, a South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said disciplinary proceedings would continue against the police officers involved in the trial despite the not guilty verdicts.