By Lucy Caulkett-
A perverted Metropolitan Police officer has been remanded in custody, after admitting secretly filming a woman while she tried on clothes in the fitting rooms at Primark and keeping more than 1,000 indecent images of children.
PC Swaleh Chaudhry, 36, used his mobile phone to upskirt the complainant at the store in Southside shopping centre in Wandsworth, south London in March, Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court heard.
The shocked woman looked down after hearing a “rustling” from the next room along to find the device pointing up at her from the space between the two cubicles, the court was told. She screamed: “Are you recording me?”, to which a voice replied: “No”, before she left the fitting room to tell her boyfriend about the ordeal.
Police searched the officer’s home in Wandsworth to find a library of horrific abuse images, the court was told. More than 1,000 Category B and C indecent images of children were uncovered on numerous devices as well as at least 52 images of the most serious kind, the court heard.
Prosecutor Suleman Hussain said officers also found “various videos of the defendant upskirting… and the videos actually show the defendant’s face”. He added: “It is anticipated the defendant will be charged with further offences.”
The news adds to an almost never ending revelation of vile officers in the force, and will add pressure for greater scrutiny of police officers when joining the force, rather than the present loose entry requirements that give almost any Tom, Dick and Harry access to the force.
Chaudhry appeared in the dock on Friday wearing a black and orange bomber jacket with his hair tied in a bun, where he pleaded guilty to one count of voyeurism, one count of possessing extreme pornography and three counts of making indecent images of children.
Robert Morris, defending, told the court his client had “pleaded guilty indicating his acceptance of responsibility” and that he was “keen to try and seek help to deal with his problem” in relation to voyeurism. Chaudhry was attached to the Met’s Taskforce and has been suspended.
He was remanded into custody by Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram and the case was sent to Kingston Crown Court for sentencing on a date yet to be fixed.