'Repugnant' Met Police officer who upskirted woman in Wandsworth shopping centre and made child pornography spared jail time

A Metropolitan Police officer who secretly filmed a woman as she tried on clothes in a Primark fitting room at South Side shopping centre and pled guilty to making indecent images of a child has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Former PC Swaleh Chaudhry, 36, was arrested in March after he used his mobile phone to upskirt a woman in the Wandsworth shopping centre.

While Chaudhry was in custody officers searched his Wandsworth home and a library of horrific child abuse images, a court previously heard.

Among more than 1,000 Category B and C indecent images of children uncovered at his residence were at least 52 images of the most serious kind, Wimbledon Magistrates' Court was told in April.

Chaudhry, who at the time was attached to the Met's Taskforce, pleaded guilty to one count of voyeurism, one count of possession of extreme pornography and three counts of making an indecent image of a child.

On Friday he was sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, and given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Commander Kyle Gordon, who leads the Met's Taskforce, said: "Former Constable Chaudhry's behaviour was repugnant. His actions go against everything we stand for.

"Holding the office of constable is a privilege and it comes with great responsibility. He showed himself to be totally unsuitable to hold this office and undeserving of the trust of the public, and it is right that he has resigned.

"He was investigated, charged and put before the courts by Metropolitan Police officers within 48 hours of the incident.

"I hope that this swift action demonstrates our absolute determination to root out those people in our organisation who let down the public and also let down the many thousands of hard working and dedicated officers with whom they serve."