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Police officer denies trying to film colleague in shower at force headquarters

General view of Gloucestershire Police Headquarters on Waterwells Drive, Quedgeley, Gloucester.   (Photo by Anthony Devlin - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
PC Jonathan Eaton is accused of trying to film a colleague in showers at Gloucestershire Constabulary's headquarters. (Stock image: Getty)

A police officer has denied trying to film a naked female colleague as she showered at their force's headquarters, telling a court he was trying to sort his own hair out.

PC Jonathan Eaton, 32, is accused of voyeurism but denies all charges, saying he didn't film the woman and was kneeling in the cubicle next her so he could dampen his hair.

Newport Crown Court has heard that the woman was drying after a shower in the unisex changing rooms at Gloucestershire Constabulary's gym in February 2019 when she noticed a mobile phone being held underneath the cubicle partition.

But Eaton says he had gone into the cubicle full clothed to stick his hair down, and had put his phone face-down on the floor before kneeling down to use the shower head.

The 32-year-old, who told the court it was his "lifelong dream" to become a policeman, said: "As far as I was concerned the camera mode was not operational."

A general view of Newport Crown Court
Eaton is standing trial at Newport Crown Court. (Stock image: Getty)

He said: "The phone’s camera lens would have been facing the floor if it was in camera mode and facing the ceiling if it was in selfie mode.

"If it was being used to record the image would have been visible on the screen."

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He said he had no idea who was in the adjacent cubicle and when he picked up his phone and left, a woman wrapped in a towel had shouted "oi", followed by "stop that policeman", as he was leaving the changing rooms.

He told the jury: "She questioned me about whether I had been filming her and demanded to see my phone.

"She didn’t look at it properly before walking away - I could tell she was distressed. I was a bit shocked at what had just happened."

The jury was told Eaton became upset by the accusations and told his supervisor he was going home as he was feeling unwell.

Prosecutor Matthew Roberts told the court that a subsequent investigation revealed within 40 minutes of getting home, his phone had been reset to factory settings - something Eaton claimed he did because it was "sluggish".

He said: "When I got home I decided to sort my phone out as it was being very sluggish.

"I assumed that having bought additional storage my phone would automatically be backed up. I decided that the only option was to factory reset my phone, which is what I did."

Eaton denies a voyeurism charge of attempting to observe and attempting to record for sexual gratification a person involved in a private act without consent.

The trial continues.

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