A SENIOR police officer accused of ‘meddling’ in two investigations while working as a prominent figure in the force’s professional standards department has seen her case delayed.

Superintendent Bev Gill is facing a gross misconduct disciplinary hearing after she was accused of ‘tipping off’ a colleague about complaints made against him about his sexual impropriety with young officers.

And on another occasion she is said to have became embroiled in an investigation into another officer who lied about how he suffered facial injuries after being assaulted when it was revealed he was having an affair.

The senior officer, who was suspended for almost three years, categorically denies any wrong-doing and believes she has been ‘targeted’ by Cleveland Police so they can make an ‘example of her’.

A disciplinary hearing into her alleged behaviour was adjourned after new evidence came to light as part of a separate employment tribunal involving the force.

Stephen Morley, representing the force, applied for the delay in proceedings on the day the hearing was due to start.

He said a bundle of 500 pages of evidence for the employment tribunal had been submitted to the force at the beginning of the month resulting in its counsel standing down from the case.

Mr Morley, told the hearing at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium, that if an adjournment was not granted the force would offer no evidence and the case would be dismissed.

Outlining some of the details of the allegations, he said: "As a result of Chief Inspector Gill speaking to Detective Inspector [Simon] Hurwood, he then took steps to speak to the person that had spoken to Chief Inspector Gill and effectively threaten her.

"It was a veiled threat for her to keep her nose out of his business, I suppose."

Hugh Davies QC, representing Supt Gill, told the panel chairwoman that a further delay was unacceptable as the three-year wait had weighed heavily on his client’s shoulders.

He branded the force’s standards and ethics team as ‘dysfunctional’ at the time of the alleged offences and she upset colleagues as she tried to improve their professionalism.

Mr Davies said: “Superintendent Gill produced medical evidence showing the history and process of the investigation had caused her post traumatic stress disorder and the treatment for this cannot start until the proceedings are ended.”

The chairwoman of the disciplinary hearing, Shamaila Qureshi, adjourned the case for a week to consider the submissions.