AN off-duty police officer accused of seriously injuring an Evesham animal rights protester during a demonstration has been cleared of causing her grievous bodily harm.

A jury at Peterborough Crown Court took 55 minutes to find PC David Manton, of Cambridgeshire Police, not guilty.

The 49-year-old will remain suspended from duty until a decision is made about whether he should face disciplinary proceedings.

The officer, who had served with the Cambridgeshire force for 12 years, denied deliberately injuring midwife Lynn Sawyer, aged 34, on the A1 at Little Paxton, Cambridgeshire, on July 29 last year.

Miss Sawyer, a member of the Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Group, was one of two protesters who had climbed to the top of a 15ft metal tripod being used to block the A1.

Protesters parked two cars across the carriageway and then erected the tripods, made from scaffolding poles from which they hung a banner protesting against animal research firm Huntingdon Life Sciences.

PC Manton told the court that he took hold of one of the legs of the tripod on which Miss Sawyer was sitting to test its weight and also to see how rigid it was.

He said he wanted to walk the legs out and lower the tripod so the protesters would come down and stop blocking the road.

Miss Sawyer fell on to the road when the tripod collapsed. She broke her leg in four places and required plastic surgery to a facial laceration.

After the case she said she would be "seeking justice through other legal channels".

A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Police said it would be left to the Association of Chief Police Officers to decide if PC Manton would face disciplinary charges.