A MURDER squad detective has escaped being disciplined, despite an internal inquiry concluding she had been dishonest about a confrontation with her partner's ex-wife.

DC Gemma Aveyard, of Cleveland Police, claimed she felt threatened when Nicola Caulfield came to her house to collect her two young children.

DC Aveyard said Ms Caulfield "barged in" and went upstairs into all the bedrooms before a doorstep altercation, in which she claimed Ms Caulfield had pointed her car keys at her threateningly.

Ms Caulfield, of Norton, near Stockton, was issued with a Police Information Notice (PIN) by Cleveland Police officers, warning her about harassment.

But the 30-year-old later made a complaint to Cleveland Police's Professional Standards Department, along with an audio recording of the whole incident, and the PIN was withdrawn.

When investigators listened to the tape they found that DC Aveyard's account had been "dishonest" and breached police standards of honesty and integrity.

The investigation report concluded that she "had a case to answer for gross misconduct".

However, when senior officers looked at the case they decided to take no further action, in part because DC Aveyard, of Acklam, Middlesbrough, had had a baby three months before the incident.

DC Aveyard had claimed her baby was screaming throughout the doorstep altercation – but there was no baby crying on the audio tape.

She also told officers Ms Caulfield had gone straight upstairs into the bedrooms. In fact, the tape depicted an amicable conversation before Ms Caulfield asked if she could go upstairs, as her daughters were asking her to look at the bunk beds.

DC Aveyard told officers her partner's ex-wife had made her feel threatened, but the tape recorded Ms Caulfield saying: "Don't push me".

Ms Caulfield – herself a former police officer, as is her ex-husband and DC Aveyard's current partner Sergeant Duncan Caulfield – said: "What the report didn't show is how massively this has impacted on my life.

"I have major trust issues and zero faith in the police service who I once worked for. I document everything, not because I want to but because I have been forced to, and I'm so sick of this.

"I'm actually in the process of installing a CCTV system on my house, to protect me from any future allegations made to police – something that I feel I shouldn't have to do but I have to protect myself."

Even after the harassment warning, DC Aveyard accompanied her partner to pick up the children from Ms Caulfield's home, and also attended their sports day, the investigation noted.

And it emerged from the report that a further complaint DC Aveyard made about Ms Caulfield taking photographs of her outside her home meant police were planning to arrest Ms Caulfield, until she produced the audio recording.

DC Aveyard later questioned the truth of the statements made by officers who attended her house after the altercation – something they were said to find "deeply offensive" in the report.

A spokeswoman for Cleveland Police said: “We received a complaint relating to an officer which was investigated.

“A final assessment of conduct deemed that there was no case to answer and that no further disciplinary action should be taken. The complainant has appealed this decision to the Independent Police Complaints Commission therefore we are unable to comment further at this time.”