Police officers and pilots cleared of misusing force helicopter
The helicopter had been used to film naked people and a couple having sex
Last updated 4th Aug 2017
Two police officers and two pilots accused of misusing the South Yorkshire Police helicopter to film naked people and a coupe having sex have been cleared of all charges.
Pilots Matthew Loosemore, 45, and Malcolm Reeves, 64, and police officers Lee Walls, 47, and Matthew Lucas, 43, all denied misconduct in a public office.
The jury had been shown some of the footage shot from the high-powered camera, including an 11-minute sequence clearly featuring a couple having sex on their patio.
At one point in the footage, the woman waves at the helicopter.
The jury heard how the couple knew a fifth man, PC Adrian Pogmore, who’d already admitted charges of misconduct in a public office at a previous hearing.
He was described by prosecutors as “a swinging and sex-obsessed air observer'', and knew the couple through the wife-swapping scene.
Pogmore, 51, of Guilthwaite Crescent, Whiston, Rotherham, was the only person in the aircraft when all four of the offending videos were filmed, and admitted four counts of misconduct in a public office.
The other men told the jury they did not know what Pogmore was doing as he filmed the sequences.
The jury of six men and six women at Sheffield Crown Court agreed, clearing them of all the charges.
Some of the defendants appeared to be in tears after the verdicts were returned following four hours of deliberation.
Their families in the public gallery overlooking the court hugged each other and cried.
As Lucas left the courtroom he said ‘thank you’ to the jury.
Pogmore, who has already been sacked by South Yorkshire Police, will be sentenced on Tuesday.
In a statement, a spokesman for the force said: “Adrian Pogmore was dismissed from South Yorkshire Police in 2015, following an internal misconduct investigation.
“Pogmore, who pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office on 18 July 2017, will return to Sheffield Crown Court for sentencing on Tuesday 8 August.
“Notwithstanding today’s verdicts concerning the four defendants who were acquitted, we will now continue with misconduct proceedings internally against the other South Yorkshire Police officers. We cannot comment further at this stage, so as not to prejudice any future misconduct hearings."