A Metropolitan police officer who filmed himself having sex with dozens of sex workers has been placed on the sex offenders register for five years after pleading guilty to three counts of voyeurism relating to 18 sex workers he filmed covertly.
Police found 202 movie clips on his computer. In 132 of them, the women were aware he was filming them but in 70 clips they were not.
At Southwark crown court on Monday, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith watched two of the clips although the films were not shown in open court.
Sentencing the officer, PC Irshad Kamal, 47, to a community order with five years on the sex offenders register, the judge said that an aggravating factor was the number of times Kamal committed offenses. In mitigation, the judge said, he is of good character, has shown remorse and is attending a sex offenders treatment programme.
The judge ordered that his computer containing the 202 film clips be destroyed after legitimate material on the computer has been copied onto a disc and returned to him. He ordered that Kamal must not have any direct contact with sex workers.
The criminal activities of the officer only came to light because a sex worker, who had no idea he was a police officer, raised the alarm about him, after he booked an appointment with her and behaved in a way that alarmed her.
When police started to investigate him they discovered he had made many covert videos of himself with different sex workers in recent years. Georgina Gibbs, prosecuting, told Southwark crown court on Monday that 202 movie files were found on his computer. In 132 clips the women did not object to being filmed but in the other 70 clips the women did not give consent to being filmed.
Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, one sex worker welcomed the verdict. She said: “It’s been a long process but I’m very happy that he has been placed on the sex offenders register and cannot contact sex workers any more.”
