A Metropolitan Police officer has been convicted of spying on a woman while showering in a Swiss Cottage flat for “his own sexual gratification”.

Det Sgt Benjamin McNish, 30, used his iPhone to take pictures of the woman who was naked in the shower at a flat in Adelaide Road on February 2019.

The victim had noticed a phone with the camera pointing into the bathroom from the top of the door, before it vanished.

When she looked again, the phone was back, and she became concerned that someone was taking pictures or recording her washing herself.

She managed to grab a towel and rush out of the bathroom to confront the person.

McNish, of Benfleet, Essex, worked for the East Area Command Unit – which covers Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge.

He was found guilty on Thursday, June 10, of one count of voyeurism following a trial at Southwark Crown Court.

The police officer, who had worked in investigating child abuse and community support, admitted taking pictures when the victim confronted him, which were taken while he was off duty.

He said: “Yeah, I was but I’ve deleted them.”

Andrew Levin, a senior specialist prosecutor for the CPS, said: “Benjamin McNish was a serving policeman who observed a woman showering without her consent for his own sexual gratification.

“This was a private act that McNish had no right to observe. He violated the victim’s privacy by spying on her in a bathroom. His actions were clearly illegal and wholly unacceptable.

“During the trial McNish claimed that he had just been using his phone to look for his razor by the sink, but the prosecution was able to prove to the jury that this was an absurd lie.”

When the offence took place McNish was staying in police accommodation with two other Met officers. When another officer in the accommodation was told of the incident, that individual called the police, and McNish was arrested at the scene.

The victim was not previously known to McNish.

McNish was bailed ahead of sentencing on July 15 at Southwark Crown Court.