A British Royal Air Force reservist was sacked after sending photographs of his penis – known as ‘dick pics’ – to a female colleague while he was deployed in Cyprus.

The man, named as 42-year-old Pieter Potgieter, reportedly spent “more than two hours” sending the pictures to the woman after she had not responded to his attempts to strike up a “flirty conversation”.

He was reportedly drunk at the time, and deleted the images and sent an apology message to the victim when he sobered up, though she said the incident “made her worry” what Potgieter may do to other female colleagues.

She also said she had been concerned that he may even show up at her house when he returned from Cyprus.

After the woman filed the report, Potgieter was brought before the Bulford military court in the United Kingdom, where assistant judge advocate general Andrew Smith said the offence was “so serious” that Potgieter “had to be dismissed”, but did acknowledge that he was “extremely remorseful”.

“There was no suggestion there had ever been anything but a proper working relationship between you. There was nothing in the background to suggest there was anything more. You were involved in an inappropriate conversation with her, she tried to close the conversation down, she tried to do it in a light-hearted manner,” he said.

Prosecuting officer lieutenant commander Andy Ramage explained the course of events, saying, “the defendant … sent a number of images of his penis.

“Although the victim did not open them, she could clearly see [from the thumbnail] these were images of the defendant’s penis.”

He added, “the incident was intentionally indecent, the crown also say this was persistent activity, the defendant sent multiple images.”

The victim had said she felt “humiliated” and “terrified” by Potgieter’s actions, and added, “this has affected my confidence so much I have considered resigning from the RAF reservists.”

In addition to being sacked by the RAF, Potgieter was sentenced to a 12-month community service order with 15 rehabilitation days.