THERE has been a delay in the first gross misconduct hearing to be held in public by the Devon and Cornwall force.

Devon and Cornwall police officer Sarah Cohen, from Lifton, had been due to face the hearing this week but now it will not take place before the New Year.

The 37-year-old has been suspended from her job as a constable since 2013 and it will be 2016 before she knows her fate.

She was cleared at Exeter Crown Court of covering up for her boyfriend, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, after a jury decided she had not put her private emotions before her duty.

She was found not guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice after a three week trial earlier this year.

She had been accused of trying to stop a victim’s parents from reporting an assault by James Reading, her boyfriend, who was later jailed for sexual assault.

PC Cohen had been on duty at Launceston Police Station when Reading rang her in the early hours of one morning to say he was at Meldon Dam near Okehampton, Devon, and was contemplating suicide.

She raced to the scene to calm him down without telling her control room but ended up using incapacitant spray to subdue him and he was held under the Mental Health Act and not arrested.

Within hours she discovered that Reading had gone to the dam after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl at an unofficial sleepover party after plying her with alcohol.

PC Cohen had been in a relationship with Reading for six years and engaged to him for a year when the assault took place in November 2011.

She has been suspended from the Devon and Cornwall force since she was charged with the criminal offences in 2013 and has remained on suspension since her acquittal.

The force confirmed this was due to be the first public hearing under new legislation introduced in May which Home Secretary Theresa May brought in to make disciplinary hearings against police officers more visible.

A force spokesman confirmed the new date for the hearing is likely to be in January 2016.