You must think I’m a weirdo, said Met officer after posting semi-naked ‘upskirt’ photos

A former Met officer secretly took perverted pictures and shared them online, a court heard
Lee Wildey
Supplied
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A former Metropolitan Police PCSO called himself a “weirdo” as he posted pictures he had secretly taken of a semi-naked young woman on the internet, a court heard.

Lee Wildey, 45, used an account on social media site Badoo to share “upskirt” images and photographs of the victim partially-clothed, calling them “sneaky ones” and promising to take more to distribute.

Croydon magistrates court heard the woman in the images told police she was “shocked, upset, and disgusted” when she realised what Wildey had done. She said: “It has caused lots of stress and sleepless nights.”

Wildey was last week sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 40 days of sexual offending rehabilitation as well as 100 hours of community service.

District Judge Nigel McLean said Wildey had “violated” the woman’s privacy, but took into account his remorse and previous service when agreeing to suspend the prison term. “You recognised the offending behaviour at a very early point, making full admissions to the police, and I believe there’s a realistic prospect of rehabilitation,” he added.

The court heard messages were recovered between Wildey and other people online, in which he had discussed using a spy camera to take voyeuristic pictures, passed on images calling them “a few sneaky ones”, and at one point said: “You probably think I’m a weirdo.”

“A police investigation revealed a Badoo account associated with a phone number and email address which Mr Wildey used to engage in conversation with others,” said Jack Williams, prosecuting.

Afsheen Chowdhry, for Wildey, told the court he worked as a PCSO in the Met between 2012 and 2017, receiving a commendation for bravery after saving two people from a burning building. The father-of-four left policing to earn more money, she said, working as a painter and decorator, but harboured ambitions to return to the police.

“He knows he can’t do this now,” she said. “He expressed to me how disappointed and upset he is with himself.”

Wildey, who lives in Richmond, pleaded guilty to voyeurism between May and August 2022.

He is now under a sexual harm prevention order for the next five years, and must abide by sexual offender notifications for seven years.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in