‘Peeping Tom’ police

Five men charged with filming couples making love from helicopter

THREE police officers and two pilots appeared in court yesterday accused of filming people naked or having sex from a force helicopter.

All worked for South Yorkshire Police when they allegedly spied on and recorded unsuspecting members of the public from the skies.

The case could be further embarrassment for the force which was involved in both the Hillsborough disaster and Rotherham abuse scandals.

Officers Matthew Lucas, 41, and Lee Walls, 46, appeared at Sheffield magistrates’ court yesterday with former police officer Adrian Pogmore, 50, and pilots Matthew Loosemore, 44, and Malcolm Reeves, 63. They have all been charged with misconduct in public office.

Allegations were published last year in a national newspaper that a glamour model was filmed sunbathing in her garden and that couples were recorded from a thermal imaging camera having sex.

Pogmore, of Rotherham, is accused of four offences. He is alleged to have ‘observed and recorded’ a naked person and persons without their knowledge and consent, and recorded people ‘ performing sexual acts’. The offences are alleged to have taken place across South Yorkshire between August 2007 and July 2012.

Lucas, of Sheffield, faces three similar charges.

Reeves, of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, was a pilot with the force before retiring in 2013. He faces two charges.

Walls, of Sheffield, is accused of recording a naked person without her knowledge in 2007.

Loosemore, of Doncaster, was a force pilot before transferring to the National Air Service in 2013. He is charged with recording people performing sexual acts dating back to 2008.

The five men were released on unconditional bail and will appear at Sheffield Crown Court next month.

District Judge Naomi Redhouse was told the case was likely to go to trial as a number of ‘not guilty’ pleas were likely.

‘Thermal imaging’