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 offences. 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.”
She added that while she was relieved to see him convicted and sentenced, testifying against him in an earlier, related court case, had been a huge ordeal.
“The whole experience has had a devastating effect on my life,” she said. “After what happened with Kamal I felt so unsafe I was forced to move to a secure, gated property in a different area. I work from home so Kamal knew where I lived. I developed an eating disorder, lost 15 kilos and have become very paranoid. I have been having weekly therapy sessions to try to deal with what he did to me.”
“I can’t sleep at night,” she added. “The only thing that has kept me going is knowing that today he would be sentenced. This case has taken a huge personal toll on me.”
Kamal was arrested after she posted a warning about him on National Ugly Mugs. Sex workers can post descriptions and mobile numbers of men they consider to be dangerous on this website, to warn other sex workers to avoid them. She gave her permission for the intelligence posted on the website to be passed onto the police to investigate and was shocked when they came back to her and told her the man she had complained about was a serving officer in the Met.
Initially, the police only investigated her complaints about Kamal. But during a search of the house he shares with his mother and sister, officers found 202 video clips on his computer. None of the women in the 70, non-consensual clips have been traced so they have no idea that Kamal has pleaded guilty to offences against them.
On 3 February 2016, Kamal admitted three counts of voyeurism between 2010 and 2012 at Southwark crown court.
Initially, the sex worker had not planned to pursue a prosecution against Kamal but when she discovered he was a police officer she decided to do so in honour of the memory of her father, who was a police officer.
“My dad was a cop … He was an old school, honourable police officer and I was brought up to be very respectful to police officers. What Kamal has done discredits the profession,” she said.
Kamal, 46, was first arrested in November 2014 following the sex worker’s complaints and charged with sexually assaulting and stalking her.
He was found not guilty of sexual assault on 29 September 2015 by an Old Bailey jury, but the jurors were unable to agree on whether he had stalked her. A retrial was scheduled for last month but the sex worker agreed to drop the stalking charges against Kamal as he had agreed to plead guilty to the voyeurism charges.
As a result, Kamal was acquitted of the stalking charge on 22 January, after the prosecution failed to offer any evidence at a pre-trial hearing, but was served with a restraining order by the judge. The order prohibited Kamal from contacting her “in order to protect her from harassment”.
“Because he knew where I lived I would sometimes see him on the other side of the street. Now I eyeball every single man who looks like him. This experience has changed my attitude to all men. My phone has a built in harassment filter. What does that say about what men are doing to women that phones are being made like that?”
She said that going to court and giving evidence against Kamal had made her feel very exposed. She was identified in court, but reporting restrictions were put in place to maintain her anonymity.
“Before Kamal only knew where I lived. He didn’t know my real name or anything else about me. But … as a result of the court case he knows lots of things about me that he didn’t know before – my real name, the other work I do apart from sex work, my age, the name of my business and he can see what’s happening with my family life on Facebook and Twitter, the court process was humiliating and shaming. I have no faith in the justice system after this.”
Alex Feis-Bryce, CEO of National Ugly Mugs, praised the courage of the sex worker in coming forward and agreeing to give evidence against Kamal in court. He said: “Sex workers are forced to work on the margins of the law and are stigmatised. The majority don’t report crimes to the police. That leaves a huge gap in intelligence and is a real concern for public protection. We act as an intermediary in cases like this one.”
An MPS spokesman said: “The officer remains suspended at this time. Now that criminal proceedings have been concluded we will be able to proceed with our misconduct process.”
