Neil Corbel has been jailed (Met Police/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)A former Metropolitan Police officer who has been jailed for covertly filming models during nude photoshoots has been found guilty of misconduct, Scotland Yard has announced.
Detective Inspector Neil Corbel, 40, rigged hotel rooms and Airbnb flats with hidden cameras in glasses, clocks, an air freshener, and phone chargers to record hours of video footage of the unsuspecting women.
Posing as a pilot called Harrison, the former counter-terrorism officer organised nude photoshoots, saying he had an interest in photography.
But the women did not know he was making secret recordings of the encounters, filming them as they changed and taking explicit footage with the spyware devices.
At Isleworth crown court last week, Corbel was jailed for three years after admitting voyeurism offences against 19 women.
Scotland Yard said Corbel was found guilty of misconduct at a hearing on Monday, and would have been sacked for discreditable conduct if he had not already resigned in disgrace.
Detective Chief Superintendent Marcus Barnett, who led the investigation, said: “DI Corbel’s offences are extremely serious and following his guilty plea we held a misconduct hearing as soon as possible. The outcome of that has been to determine that had DI Corbel still been a serving officer, he would have been immediately dismissed without notice.
“I am truly disappointed by DI Corbel’s actions which are not at all representative of the high values and standards we expect, and I am saddened by the pain and hurt that he has caused and would pay tribute to the brave women that came forward”.
Corbel’s sentencing hearing was told how he was caught out by a model in November 2019, when she noticed a suspicious clock in the room and then discovered it was a hidden camera when she searched the brand name online.
She called police, who discovered Corbel had a hard-drive containing footage of a series of women as they posed for nude photoshoots.
He was prosecuted for offences against 16 models and three sex workers, who all said they had not consented to the videos being made.
“I can’t possibly overstate how violated I feel”, one victim told the court. “How much of an impact his actions have had on me.”
Another woman said Corbel’s actions have affected her modelling career, leaving her unable to trust male photographers and constantly anxious about hidden cameras.
“I can’t check every object in the room in which the shoot takes place to see if it is recording”, she said. “I have become paranoid, affecting my work and mental health, and I feel there’s no solution to this.”
She added: “The fact the defendant is a police officer has shocked and scared me. He is supposed to enforce the law not break it.”
Other victims mentioned the murder of Sarah Everard at the hands of a Met Police officer, saying finding out they had been targeted by Corbel was “scary”.
“This feels like a very frightening time to be a woman”, said one. “If we can’t turn to the police to protect us, what are we supposed to do?”
Edward Henry QC, representing Corbel, said the police officer had served for 13 years and helped to bring terrorists to justice, adding that his crimes “went against his deepest values to serve and help others”.
He said Corbel’s sex addiction “overwhelmed him and eventually destroyed his career, almost destroyed him, and has caused unbearable pain not just to the victims but to his undeserving, loyal, compassionate wife and family.”
Mr Henry added that Corbel co-operated with the police investigation while offering up incriminating evidence, and he accepts the victims’ “fury because of their feelings of being abused, humiliated, taken advantage of, and disrespected”.
Passing sentence, Judge Martin Edmunds QC, Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, said Corbel “derived satisfaction” from breaking the women’s clearly defined photoshoot boundaries.
“You used your charisma, charm, and humour to gain their trust”, he said.
“It’s clear the revelation to your victims that you were a serving police officer has for many of them seriously undermined their trust in the police.”
Corbel, from Hertfordshire, will be on the sex offenders register for life, and subject to a sexual harm prevention order for seven years which restricts his ability to photograph women or possess recording devices.
