A New South Wales police officer found guilty of filming himself having sex with a colleague before sharing it with other officers on Snapchat has been sentenced to nine months in prison.
Timothy Michael Patterson was found guilty in March of filming a woman in a private act without her consent and using a carriage service to menace, harass, or offend.
While the Sydney police officer was handed a prison sentence, magistrate Clare Farnan said on Friday that Patterson would be able to serve his time in the community via an intensive corrections order after undergoing an assessment in May.
An invensive detention order means a sentence will be served in the community under the supervision of Corrective Services.
Conditions of the order can include drug and alcohol testing, curfews, searches, and random unannounced home visits”
"These offences are offences which in my view the community needs to recognise as being extremely harmful to both the community and to the victim generally," said Farnan.
Patterson and another officer had consensual sex at a hotel in July, 2017, but the woman did not consent to being filmed, per AAP. Patterson filmed three videos and shared two of them in a Snapchat group named "No Snitches". The group included eight other officers as members.
Previously, Patterson had argued the woman had consented to filming but not to sharing the video with others.
A spokesperson for NSW Police said Patterson was suspended, with his employee status under review.