A Gloucestershire police constable has been found not guilty of attempting to film a naked female colleague as she showered at their force headquarters in Quedgeley.

PC Jonathan Eaton, 32, of Brockworth, Gloucester, had pleaded not guilty at Newport Crown Court last week to attempting to observe and record, for sexual gratification, a person involved in a private act without consent on February 27, 2019.

Following a six day trial the jury took five hours and 12 minutes to return their verdict of not guilty today, Monday.

Trial Judge Geraint Walters said to the jury: “There was effectively only one question to be answered and that was what was the phone doing there in the shower cubicle and did PC Eaton attempt to either record or observe whoever was showering in the adjacent cubicle whether the phone was pointed upwards or not? You’ve answered this with your not guilty verdict.”

PC Eaton had told the jury of seven men and five women that his phone was facing the wrong way for him to have attempted to film the woman as she used the showers at the Gloucestershire Police HQ gym in Waterwells, Quedgeley, Gloucester.

Last week, the jury heard that a female officer was using the shower at 7.15am on February 27, 2019, as part of her daily gym routine when she noticed a distinctive phone being held underneath the partition.

Prosecutor Mathew Roberts said that a man tried to leave the shower complex and the woman shouted ‘Stop that policeman’, to which two other police officers responded and apprehended PC Eaton.

The woman claimed she recognised his phone cover and that PC Eaton’s head was dry.

The court was told that PC Eaton went home on sick leave following the incident and within 40 minutes his phone had been reset back to factory settings.

PC Eaton said in his evidence that he went into the cubicle fully clothed to use the high powered showers to stick his hair down – a double crown that he was "precious" about – and placed his phone on the floor before kneeling down to use the shower head.

He continued: “As far as I was concerned the camera mode was not operational. 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.

“I didn’t know who was in the adjacent cubicle. I then picked up my phone and left.

“As I was walking away I heard a woman shout ‘oi’ but I didn’t think it was aimed at me and I carried on retrieving my possessions when the same woman shouted, ‘stop that policeman’.

“I then spoke to a woman in a towel at the opposite end of the changing room. 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.”

PC Eaton then explained why he reset his phone and 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.

“I then contacted the Gloucestershire Police Federation for advice. They told me to return to discuss the situation. But as I entered the room I was told that officers were coming to arrest me.

“I was then taken to a police station out of the county to be interviewed after which I was released under investigation without being charged.

“After a year, during which time I was still working but had been under warrant restraint, I was duly summonsed, charged and suspended from work.

“I haven’t done anything wrong. I have never been accused of anything before. It was a lifelong dream to become a policeman. I became a special constable in 2009 before I joined the regulars four years later."