Officer cleared in sex case

A POLICE officer who serves in Oldham has been cleared of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room.

PC Rachael Taylor (27), from Rochdale, was alleged to have pinned down and attacked the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, after a night out last autumn.

She denied two counts of sexual assault by penetration in a Manchester Crown Court trial and was yesterday found not guilty by a jury.

PC Taylor maintained throughout the four-day trial that she had consensual sex, only to learn the next day that the alleged victim was in a relationship with someone else.

The complainant claimed she was physically injured but the jury heard the following day the two women had gone shopping, held hands in public, dined out, gone clubbing and shared a bed.

PC Taylor had been placed on restricted duties for the last year but now hopes to return to frontline policing.