Police chopper perv is jailed for one year
A FORMER cop who filmed a couple having sex from his police helicopter has been jailed for a year.
A judge told ex-PC Adrian Pogmore: “You, quite literally, considered yourself above the law.”
“Sex-obsessed” Pogmore cried as he was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court.
He had filmed a married couple from the South Yorkshire Police aircraft and recorded five other people who were sunbathing nude.
Footage shot by Pogmore, 51, included scenes of the man and woman having sex in various positions on their patio.
Judge Peter Kelson QC heard how the officer, who served for 22 years until he was sacked, knew the couple through the swinging scene.
The court heard Pogmore was “a swinging and sex-obsessed air observer” who was referred to as the “team deviant” by other members of the air support unit.
Judge Kelson said: “In short, you used a £2million helicopter which costs something like $1000 (sic) an hour to run to advance your own sexual curiosities when it should have been detecting crime.”
He said Pogmore’s actions were “offensive and invasive” and called him a “rogue police officer”. Judge Kelson said: “So strong were your sexual urges, you were willing to take substantial risks of being detected by your colleagues in the helicopter at the time.”
The judge said he took into account Pogmore’s police service, which included a number of commendations – one for saving the life of an 11-year-old boy.
And he said he understood the huge impact the case had on the officer’s family after “in the region of 15 to 20 minutes of misconduct in a 22-year police career”.
One woman who was filmed sunbathing with her husband said in a victim statement: “If you can’t trust the police, who can you trust?”
John Ryder QC, defending, told the judge: “It was utterly irresponsible. It was thoughtless and foolish. But it was not motivated by anything more sinister than that.”
Pogmore, of Rotherham, admitted four counts of misconduct in a public office last month relating to four incidents between 2007 and 2012.
Two other officers and two pilots were tried and cleared of the same offence after telling a jury they had no idea what Pogmore was doing. the act took place in a patrol car and that the footage had been shared online.
But our insider said this was not how the material came to be circulated.
They explained: “Danks left the police towards the end of last year. He wasn’t charged with any criminality and no reports went to the fiscal.
“The incident did not involve a patrol car and did not appear online.
“He was the subject of misconduct proceedings for engaging in sexual activity while in uniform at Longhaugh police station.”
Thrillseeker Danks has run the Tough Mudder charity endurance race and carried out tandem parachute jumps.
When approached for comment, he said: “Well, I can tell you just