A Wimbledon police officer wept as he was sentenced Monday after admitting secretly filming hundreds of sexual encounters with prostitutes.
PC Irshad Kamal, who pleaded guilty to voyeurism weeks after being cleared of sexually assaulting prostitutes, was found to have a staggering 202 videos of himself with prostitutes on his iPhone, hard drive and computer. Of these videos, it is believed that about 70 were made without the knowledge of the sex worker.
Barrister for the defence, Simon Pentol QC, told Southwark Crown Court that PC Kamal, 47, would make an excuse for the sex worker to leave the room before setting his iPhone to record and hiding underneath a pile of his clothes.
In unusual scenes, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith watched two of the videos on a private laptop before the court, in order to see the setting up of the camera. He declined to retire to his chambers to watch the videos, describing himself as “distinctly uneasy” about such a possibility.
PC Kamal will have to sign the sex offenders register for five years, and his iPhone, hard drive and computer will all be destroyed.
Sentencing, Judge Loraine-Smith said: “I expect the fact it was being recorded was part of your enjoyment of the process, and you would watch it later. There’s no suggestion these films were seen by anyone other than you.”
PC Kamal, whose family were in court to hear his sentence, wept in the dock as his impending dismissal from the Metropolitan police was discussed.
A psychological report read out by the defence also suggested that his offending was linked to the “enormous stress” and “bullying” he suffered at the Metropolitan Police, as well as the result of post traumatic stress he suffered from following a car crash while on duty in 2009.
PC Kamal was originally arrested in November 2014 and charged with sexually assaulting and stalking a prostitute after she posted his details on an ‘Ugly Mugs’ website to warn other sex workers about his behaviour. A jury found him not guilty of sexual assault on September 29 2015. They were unable to agree on whether he had stalked the woman, but he was given a restraining order.
PC Kamal was charged with six counts of voyeurism by recording a person doing a private act just two weeks later on October 16.
He pleaded guilty to three of the voyeurism charges, alleged to have occurred between October 2009 and April 2014, at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, January 29.
The other three charges of voyeurism were left to lie on file.
