IT HAS followed him around for years, and now it will stay with him for ever.

A Brighton police officer who was taunted for years about a strange drawing of a suspect he once made has had the image tattooed on his leg to raise money for charity.

PC Lee Willis first drew the image of the burglar in 2004, prompting giggles from his fellow officers and staff at John Street.

Since then his pals have played pranks such as all changing their Facebook pictures to show his picture and even all turning up to the station wearing masks with the image on the front.

But the constable, 43, who has been on the beat since 2001, took the jokes in his stride.

Now he has had the image put on his leg by the Sideshow Tattoo Company in Portland Road, Hove.

He had the tattoo done on Friday to raise money for mental health charity Mind.

“My wife was laughing her head off all the way through it,” he said after the two-hour inking session.

“When I did the drawing I had just finished my probation period. Being young and enthusiastic, I started taking descriptions and tried to draw a picture of the suspect.

“Before I knew it, my co-workers had got hold of the drawing and it was being sent around all the local police stations. I heard it ended up making it as far as Newcastle.

“This drawing has followed me around for 15 years, across the force and even cross-border. I felt that such is the joy and humour that it has brought to my colleagues, friends and family, that it deserved to be immortalised in ink.

“My colleagues were all at it, they kept saying ‘why don’t you get it tattooed for charity?’

“I spoke to my wife about it, and she agreed it was for a good cause, and decided where the tattoo would go.”

PC Willis announced he would have the tattoo a few weeks ago – and said he was surprised as the story spread from The Argus to the national press an on to television with ITV Meridian News. It even featured on BBC’s Have I Got News For You.

Tattoo artist Lee Robertson completed the work, at Sideshow Tattoo Company, where he has worked for six years.

He said it was one of the strangest requests he has had to deal with.

He said: “It is on the side of his thigh, above the shorts line as you can imagine. You do get weird requests, but a lot of people then cannot go through with it.”

The burglar was never caught but Lee’s colleagues were unforgiving, holding a ten-year anniversary for the image among other practical jokes.

He added: “They made a fake newspaper front page with the e-fit on and one morning I walked into a briefing and they were all wearing face masks they had made with pictures of the face on.

“I think this joke is going to keep going until I retire.”

On his Just Giving page he has raised more than £2,000, along with a further £1,000 that he has raised privately.

To donate to the cause visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lee-willis6.