‘A Met police officer secretly filmed me naked’

Corbel secretly filmed women during photoshoots around London, Manchester and Brighton

A Met Police counter-terrorism officer who posed as an airline pilot to gain the trust of women, before secretly filming them naked, has been sentenced to three years in prison. Here, one of the women targeted by Det Insp Neil Corbel shares the impact it has had on her.

"He seemed professional at first. He introduced himself and said how he did photography as a hobby."

When "Jessica", whose name we have changed, was booked for a modelling assignment at a London hotel in 2018, she saw nothing out of the ordinary.

The man, who called himself Harrison, had set up a makeshift studio in a room of the hotel.

"He just seemed very open, easy to talk to," Jessica explains. "We had a connection in a way, we chatted for hours."

Spy cameras, like the one circled in red on this radio, were used by Corbel.

The man told her he was a pilot, but in reality he was Det Insp Neil Corbel - a Metropolitan Police officer now sentenced for 19 counts of voyeurism.

Investigators found he had recorded 131 hours of covert footage of naked women, some stored on his police computer.

The material related to 31 women, filmed between 2017 and 2020 around London, Manchester and Brighton. He had approached the women using numerous aliases.

In most cases, like Jessica's, the women had been secretly filmed while undressing before the photoshoots, using spy cameras hidden inside objects such as clocks, radios and tissue boxes.

A smaller number of women were sex workers whom he secretly filmed having sex with him.

The case comes amid growing concerns, especially among women, about the levels of trust in officers.

In September, Met Police officer Wayne Couzens was given a whole-life sentence for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard. The government has since announced an inquiry.

Jessica was given the book Catch Me If You Can, about a fake pilot, by Corbel as a gift

A few weeks after the photoshoot with Jessica, they went out for dinner together.

He bought her a book, Catch Me If You Can, about the true story of US fraudster Frank Abagnale, who pretended to be a pilot - mirroring Corbel's lies about his own profession. "It's strange, just weird," Jessica says.

But unlike Abagnale, who was driven by money, when officers finally tracked down Corbel, he told them his only motivation had been sexual gratification.

After their third meeting, over coffee, Jessica said something didn't quite add up - but she would never have believed he was a police officer.

"I couldn't put my finger on it, but something just felt a bit odd. I feel lucky I didn't take things any further."

'I was in shock'

Corbel's actions were uncovered when another woman, who had become suspicious of a digital clock during the modelling session, made a mental note of the brand name and later discovered online that it was a spy camera.

After she reported it to police, they began to investigate.

Jessica was called into her local station, and remembers being taken aback when officers told her who "Harrison" really was.

"They said, 'You might know him as Harrison'. And they told me he was a police officer. I just went quiet and couldn't speak because I was in shock.

"They showed me a video he'd recorded of me undressing and were asking me to identify myself. I just said, 'Yeah, that's me', and got them to turn it off. I didn't want to watch it with an officer sat opposite me."

Met Police Det Ch Supt Marcus Barnett, whose team led the investigation into Corbel, has described the anguish he felt on realising the force was investigating one of its own.

"I've got 28 years' service, but there is still disbelief when I hear of officers doing things like this," he told the BBC. "It's a betrayal, it damages trust and it damages confidence [in the police].

"It hurts because I know how hard I work and I know how hard my officers work to look after and care for people."

He said one of the victims had been considering joining the police service, but withdrew her application after discovering Corbel's actions.

"These are the things that really hurt us," he added.

'It won't define me'

Jessica says Corbel's actions have made her question her trust in the police.

"These are the people who are supposed to help us. I found it so shocking that he was an officer and has had all that training and then does something like this."

She says it has led her to lose trust in herself and her own judgment too. "I try not to let him influence my personality or what I'm doing. But it put me off modelling for months. And with dating, it makes me more cautious."

Now Corbel has been sentenced, Jessica says she wants to move on with her life again.

"I can't let it define me," she adds.

For information and support for anyone affected by sexual abuse (current or historic), visit the BBC's Action Line.