London’s police chief “needs to be heard”, Andy Burnham has said, after Sir Mark Rowley criticised a court decision to let a paedophile stay in his flat which overlooked a children’s playground.

Zafer Dogan, 32, was jailed on Thursday for two years and four months after he was convicted of taking thousands of pictures of women and girls, before using AI technology to turn them into nude images for his own sexual gratification.

Before he was sentenced, Dogan was bailed back to his flat in Enfield, north London, forcing one family who had fallen victim to his crimes to move into temporary accommodation.

The Prime Minister told BBC London’s Karl Mercer on Friday that “this particular case is disturbing”.

He added: “I would ask those working across the criminal justice system to look at it and to make any necessary changes as a result.”

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark had taken the unusual step of publicly criticising the justice system, telling reporters that “the children should be put first, not the paedophile”.

Making a statement outside Wood Green Crown Court, he said as a result of the bail decision, “a victim and their family found themselves living in close proximity to a man who had admitted targeting them”.

Sir Mark explained that the family “ultimately felt forced to move to a distant temporary accommodation, disrupting their lives and disrupting their children’s lives, simply to escape being in the neighbourhood of the offender”.

He continued: “That is simply not acceptable.

“The children should be put first, not the paedophile.

“The pressure to reduce the remand population has contributed to more dangerous and prolific offenders being granted bail routinely despite strong submissions from the police and CPS.”

Asked what he made of Sir Mark’s statement, Mr Burnham replied: “He certainly has a point and it needs to be heard.

“It’s obviously a matter for the courts when these decisions are made, but obviously they need to hear the voice of the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.”

Mr Burnham added: “The failure to build prison places over a number of years has led to this unacceptable situation.

“I don’t believe anyone would want this situation to have arisen – it results from that failure to ensure proper planning of prison places in the past.

“But we are where we are. I have to deal with it.”

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee last year warned prisons were “alarmingly full”, operating at between 98.0% and 99.7% occupancy between October 2022 and August 2024.

The number of prisoners on remand, who are waiting for a trial or sentencing, reached a record high of 17,711 in August 2024, the committee of MPs also found.

London’s victims’ commissioner Andrea Simon earlier warned that families “were grossly failed by the decision” to bail Dogan.

Ms Simon told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “To know that the police and prosecutors opposed bail multiple times, but nevertheless he was returned to the community, is an indication that the capacity pressures on prisons are not being balanced with the impacts that that’s having on victims’ lives.”

Remand and bail decisions are made by independent judges or magistrates.

Dogan had previously pleaded guilty to multiple image offences, including making indecent images of children, having been arrested on July 16 on suspicion of offences involving indecent images of children.

He was arrested again on August 4 and the following day was charged and remanded by police.

The defendant appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on August 6 and accepted all the charges against him.

According to the prosecutor, Dogan had “been on conditional bail throughout these proceedings”.

Dogan pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of a child, which included 900 category C images, 294 category B images and 653 category A images – which are the most severe.

He also admitted possessing extreme pornography, possessing a prohibited image of a child, creating purported intimate images of an adult, obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty and a further two counts of making indecent photographs of a child.