PC Adrian Pogmore, who used a police helicopter to film a swinging couple having sex, wept today as a judge today jailed him for a year.
The court also heard how he used the chopper for spying on five others sunbathing naked, reports the BBC.
Peter Kelson QC told Pogmore during the hearing: "You, quite literally, considered yourself above the law" as he sentenced him to a year in prison at Sheffield Crown Court.
Graphic footage captured by Pogmore, 51, was screened in the court which showed a man and woman having sex on their patio.
Judge Peter Kelson QC heard how the officer, who served for 22 years until he was sacked, knew the couple through a shared interest in the swinging scene.
The court heard that 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 at South Yorkshire Police.
Credit: SWNS
Judge Kelson said: "In short, you used a £2 million helicopter which costs something like 1,000 dollars (sic) an hour to run to advance your own sexual curiosities when it should have been detecting crime.
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"Instead of deterring and detecting crime, you were committing crime."
The judge said Pogmore's actions 'were offensive and invasive' and described him a 'rogue police officer'.
Judge Kelson said: "So strong were your sexual urges that you were willing to take, and did take, substantial risks of being detected by your colleagues in the helicopter at the time."
He said: "You spied on and recorded these naked people from a height of 1,000ft.
"You, quite literally, considered yourself above the law. Nobody is above the law."
But the judge said he also took into account Pogmore's police service, which included a number of commendations, including for saving the life of an 11-year-old boy.
Credit: PA
The judge said he found it an 'immensely difficult' sentencing exercise, adding: "I'm as acutely aware as anyone else that without the thin blue line this country would fall into anarchy."
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One woman who was filmed sunbathing with her husband said in a victim statement that since she found out about the filming she found it very difficult to deal with. She said: 'If you can't trust the police, who can you trust?'."
Another woman filmed naked without her knowledge told police she felt sick when she saw the footage.
John Ryder QC, defending, told the judge he accepted that there was no culture of misconduct within the air support unit but there was a macho culture he would categorise as 'coarse locker room humour rather than anything more sinister'.
Mr Ryder said: "It was utterly irresponsible. It was thoughtless and foolish. But it was not motivated by anything more sinister than that."
He said Pogmore and his family had suffered 'nothing short of humiliation'.
But Mr Ryder added: "It is his fault, he accepts that."
Pogmore, of Whiston, Rotherham, admitted four counts of misconduct in a public office last month relating to four incidents between 2007 and 2012.
Featured Image Credit: SWNSTopics: Police