Hipster cop: New photos emerge of London riot cop

'Hipster cop' Peter Swinger, pictured on Instagram nine months ago. Picture: Hemedia/Emily Evans

Hirsute Peter Swinger was captured sporting the same curled moustache while patrolling the streets of Notting Hill Carnival, in west London, last summer.

Instagram users wrote to Emily Evans, who took the photo nine months ago, congratulating her for capturing the trendy officer before his image was seen worldwide.

One wrote: “Congratulations, you took a picture of him before it was cool.”

Sergeant Nathan Shickle, who usually patrols the streets of Battersea, south west London, was supervising the “hipster cop” on Sunday the day after the photo - which quickly went viral - was taken.

The pair posed for a selfie and the sergeant posted it to his Twitter feed.

Sgt Shickle also tweeted: “He’s a bit overwhelmed by it all, but he’s been a really good sport about it.”

But the so-called ‘hipster cop’ is, in fact, just a regular policeman who happens to have some serious facial hair.

Photographer Guy Smallman took the original picture at the weekend, which went down a storm on Twitter.

But 6ft 4in ex-soldier Peter is a father-of-three who names Meatloaf as his favourite musician and enjoys reading fantasy novels.

A relative told the Mail Online: “Peter is definitely, definitely not a hipster. He’s a real family man who loves reading and riding his motorbike.

“He can’t help but find the whole thing very, very amusing. The entire family are getting massive laughs from it too, and he’s been getting a lot of gyp from his colleagues for it as well.

“He’s certainly not into obscure hipster music. His taste is very eclectic, but the one artist I only really know of him liking is Meatloaf.

“He’s usually a very private person but is certainly having a good laugh at this. He’s got a very dry sense of humour and finds the whole thing so daft.”