A WOMAN police officer has been cleared of covering up for her paedophile boyfriend after a jury decided she had not put her private emotions before her duty.

 Sarah Cohen of Lifton was on Monday found not guilty of two charges of trying to pervert the course of justice after a three week trial at Exeter Crown Court.

 The jury cleared her after less than an hour, having heard how she had been left facing an impossible dilemma when her life was torn apart by the behaviour of her fiancé, James Reading.

She was on duty at Launceston Police Station when he rang her in the early hours of the morning to say he was at Meldon and considering suicide.

She rushed to calm him down without informing her control room, but ended up using incapacitant gas to subdue him. He was held under the Mental Health Act and not arrested.

She later discovered that he had gone to the dam after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl at an unofficial sleepover party at an Air Cadet hut in Devon.

Cohen was in charge of the cadet group and arrived for a routine parade night the next day to be told of the allegations for the first time.

Reading was the sergeant at the squadron and had organised a party at their headquarters, where he plied the 14-year-old with a spirit-laden punch, cornered her in a kitchen, and tried to force himself on her.

She fought him off and older male cadets threw Reading out of the hut in the middle of the night, leaving him to drive to Meldon.

The girl revealed her ordeal to one of the male cadet in texts, which he showed to Cohen at the parade.

She reported them to the girl's father immediately, but later visited him and his wife at their home to discuss the revelations.

The prosecution alleged she had tried to persuade them not to lodge a formal complaint with the police about Reading's assault, but she insisted she had gone to offer the parents support.

Cohen was found not guilty after telling the jury that she thought her trip to Meldon was the best way of de-escalating the situation and denying that she was trying to prevent Reading's arrest.

She said she had visited the parents of the 14-year-old at a time when she was distraught and upset, after learning about the allegations against her fiancé just four hours earlier.

She told the jury the parents had already decided to report the matter and had asked advice from a senior detective who was a family friend.

Cohen also told the jury of the mental turmoil she suffered during the 40 hours in which she was confronted by Reading's suicidal behaviour — and discovery that the man she planned to marry was a child abuser.

She said she was already exhausted from working night shifts when the ordeal began and blamed lack of sleep for not handing in a knife, which she took from Reading during the incident on the dam.

She said she had spent most of the next night distraught, confused and in tears after learning of Reading's behaviour.

Cohen, aged 37, had been in a relationship with Reading for six years and engaged to him for a year at the time of his offences against young cadets in November 2011.

She was the honorary flight lieutenant in charge of an air cadet squadron in Devon where Reading, also 37, was sergeant.

Reading jumped bail while awaiting trial and was found guilty of sexual assault in his absence in December 2012 and jailed for ten years.

He was finally arrested last year and is now serving his sentence.

During her evidence Cohen told the jury she had been in the police for almost ten years and had been a civilian employee for four more years before that.

She said she knew Reading from her own time as a 13-year-old air cadet but they had lost touch with one another before meeting again as adults.

She said: 'It was a very difficult relationship. He was a very intense individual and difficult to deal with. It was hard work trying to do so and I did not like his drinking.

'It is hard to explain why I stayed with him to someone who has not been in that position. I felt trapped and I felt responsible for him. Looking back, I realise I was manipulated by him.

'I would not say I loved him by that time. I had, but by then the relationship was just too difficult.'

She said she was emotionally and physically drained by the traumatic events of the two nights and described her emotions as being 'in 101 places at once'.

She said she cried for hours after learning what Reading had done to the girl.

She said: 'When I was shown the texts my immediate reaction was total shock. I did not have the slightest inkling Jamie (Reading) had been up to something like that.

'I don't recall if I cried then, but I did an awful lot of crying that night. I was totally shocked and confused. It opened a lot of questions. I was absolutely horrified. I did not doubt the truthfulness of what I was reading.

'I spoke to the girl and asked her who was going to tell her father — her or me. I asked the father into my office and showed him the texts.

'The girl did not give me any more details. I did not ask and she did not tell me. Her father's response was total shock.

'The cadets had gone out on a night exercise so there was just him and me left there. I broke down. I was distraught and in tears for an hour or so and he was also in shock and trying to console me.'

She said she went to discuss the events of the past two days with friends who were also involved with the ATC and then went to see the girl's parents.

She said her intention was to support them and not to try to cover up Reading's crime.

She said: 'I knew it was not going to stay in-house.'

The prosecution withdrew charges of misconduct in public office.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: 'This has been a long and complicated case and Devon and Cornwall Police thank the jury for their patience and time.

'Devon and Cornwall Police expects the highest standards of professional behaviour from all our officers and staff and will relentlessly pursue any cases where those standards have been breached.

'We will now consider whether PC Cohen will face internal misconduct proceedings arising from the incidents for which she was tried.'