Copter sex spy officer weeps as he is jailed
A DISGRACED police officer who used his force helicopter to spy on people having sex wept yesterday as he was jailed for a year.
Adrian Pogmore, 51, wrecked his 22-year career by recording naked sunbathers and his swinger friends using the £2million aircraft’s powerful camera.
Sentencing him, Judge Peter Kelson, QC, told the former South Yorkshire constable: “You considered yourself to be above the law”.
Pogmore had admitted four charges of misconduct in public office between 2007 and 2012 before a trial at Sheffield Crown Court in which four of his colleagues – two pilots and two fellow officers – were cleared.
Pogmore, of Whiston, Rotherham, navigated the unsuspecting helicopter crew to spy on the sunbathers, naturists at a nudist farm, and a couple who put on an 11-minute sex show on their patio.
Judge Kelson said, unlike the other acts of voyeurism, the exhibitionist show had been planned.
“She was naked, she was waiting for the helicopter to arrive and she waved from the patio at the helicopter,” said the judge.
“So strong were your sexual urges, Pogmore, 51, arrives for sentencing yesterday you were willing to take, and did take, a substantial risk of being detected by your colleagues in the helicopter at the time.”
Pogmore’s ex-wife Lesley wrote to the court pleading for leniency, saying he had lost his job, his pension and suffered public humiliation.
John Ryder, QC, defending, said of Pogmore’s abuse of the helicopter: “It was utterly irresponsible, it was thoughtless and extremely foolish but it was not motivated by anything more sinister than that.”