A YORK mother who was acquitted of an assault says she is devastated after investigators refused to examine a complaint about her treatment by police.

Claire Hughes had claimed she was unlawfully arrested and charged by North Yorkshire Police, following an incident at a village pub at Fylingthorpe on the Yorkshire Coast in May last year.

But the force's professional standards department said her complaint would not be considered because it was made more than 12 months afterwards and was out of time.

Ms Hughes, 43, of Fulford Road, said she had delayed submitting the complaint until her trial finished, and CPS delays meant it took more than a year to come to trial.

"It's unfair for me to be penalised for delays in the trial process that were outside of my control," she said.

"I feel I have been denied the right to justice and I cannot have closure on this matter, which has resulted in a lot of negative and inaccurate coverage in the media and caused me huge amounts of stress and made me really ill. The allegations published against me are unfounded and untrue."

It was alleged during the trial at Scarborough Magistrates Court in July that Ms Hughes and her then partner, West Yorkshire murder squad detective Paul Whiteley, had shared two and half bottles of red wine over seven hours before leaving the pub, at which point a holidaymaker had challenged the couple, thinking they were going to drive.

Whiteley was convicted of assaulting the holidaymaker, and he was sacked last week for gross misconduct by West Yorkshire Police. However, Ms Hughes was cleared of attacking the holidaymaker's girlfriend, with magistrates saying the story of the assault was simply not plausible.

Ms Hughes told The Press she had been angry because she had no intention of driving but simply planned to walk five minutes to a campsite, and because she was being prevented from taking her eight-year-old son out of the pub by the holidaymaker.

However, she had not assaulted anyone, and she claimed police had arrested and charged her without first seeking independent witnesses as to what had happened.

She said she had first complained about her treatment by police on the day she was charged, but officers had disbelieved her, and she now planned to complain to a York MP and the Police and Crime Commissioner.

North Yorkshire Police's professional standards department said in a letter it would be unfair for a complaint made more than 12 months after an incident to be investigated.

"The officer or member of staff would be able to claim that the facts of the incident had faded from their minds and the potential for injustice is significantly increased," it said.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) then turned down her appeal, saying there did not appear to have been any good reason for the delay in making her complaint, and it did not accept she might have harmed her criminal case by making her complaint at an earlier stage.

North Yorkshire Police and the IPCC declined to make further comment to The Press.