NYPD sergeant Haytham Khalil pleaded guilty to tapping into a criminal database to help a friend.

New York police sergeant Haytham Khalil, pleaded guilty in court yesterday for tapping into a criminal database to help a close friend who was embroiled in a custody battle in Canada.

Authorities claim that Khalil, 34, accessed a national database to help his friend prove that her husband was on an FBI terrorist watch list.

Khalil was caught when his friend gave her lawyer a copy of the information and her lawyer gave the copy to the court.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were able to trace it back to Khalil.

Khalil will be sentenced in April and faces up to one year in prison.