Colleague: Officer who used force helicopter to film naked people ‘kept voyeurism secret’

A FORMER police officer who has admitted misusing a police helicopter to film people sunbathing naked and having sex kept his “swinging and voyeurism” secret, a colleague has told a court.

Pc Tim Smales was asked at Sheffield Crown Court about Adrian Pogmore, who worked with him on the South Yorkshire Police helicopter for a number of years. Pogmore, 51, has admitted misconduct in a public office in relation to four recordings made from the aircraft between 2007 and 2012 showing people sunbathing naked outside their homes, a couple having sex on a patio and two naturists sitting outside a caravan on a campsite.

The court has heard how the couple who were filmed as they had sex in a range of positions in their suburban garden were friends of Pogmore.

Prosecutors have told a jury he knew them as they “shared his sexual interest in the swinging scene”. They have also said the pair “brazenly put on a show” for the aircraft.

On Thursday, Pc Smales agreed he worked with Pogmore for a number of years before the defendant was dismissed from the South Yorkshire force.

He was asked by Neil Fitzgibbon, defending Loosemore, if he knew Pogmore was “into voyeurism and swinging”. The officer said he did not know and he would have reported it if he did.

Pogmore, of Guilthwaite Crescent, Whiston, Rotherham, has been described as “a swinging and sex-obsessed air observer” by prosecutors.

Pc Smales was giving evidence on the third day of the trial of two other police officers who worked as air observers, Matthew Lucas, 42, and Lee Walls, 47 and two police pilots, Matthew Loosemore, 45, and Malcolm Reeves, 64, who all deny the same charge and, the court has heard, all blame Pogmore for the recordings. Pogmore has admitted four charges of misconduct in a public office.

Reeves, of Farfield Avenue, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, denies two counts of the same charge.

Walls, of Southlands Way, Aston, Sheffield, denies one count. Loosemore, of Briar Close, Auckley, Doncaster, denies one count. Lucas, of Coppice Rise, Chapeltown, Sheffield, denies three counts.