A BRITISH Transport Police officer from Wroughton has spoken of the three-year nightmare his family has suffered after he was accused of covering up an incident in which a colleague was alleged to have assaulted a drunken youth, splitting his head open.

DC Adrian Naylor and two of his colleagues were cleared of misconduct in office after a two-week trial. PC Richard Evans was also acquitted of assaulting the youth causing actual bodily harm.

"It has been absolutely horrible," said DC Naylor. "I feel bitter. I don't think it should ever have got that far."

He added that the case had put his family under an intolerable strain. It had also badly affected his colleagues, he said.

DC Naylor, 48, of Saville Court, Wroughton, Sgt Albert Ryan, 48, from Campion Hall Drive, Oxford and PC John Seaman, 35, of Phipps Close, Maidenhead, were acquitted after Southwark Crown Court heard none of them saw PC Richard Evans raise his baton.

Dog handler Evans, 47, was accused of striking 17-year-old Richard Snell with a metal baton during a late night fracas at Reading railway station on May 11, 2001.

The former military policeman, of St George's Road, Mitcham, Surrey, denied assault causing actual bodily harm.

DC Naylor, then a uniformed officer, said: "This has greatly affected all of us. It has undermined the confidence we had in the job we were doing before this happened. It has made me a different person."

Now based at Paddington, the officer said on the night in question he was on the platform when the fight was happening outside the station.

When Mr Snell appeared on the platform with a bloodied head DC Naylor gave him first aid and called an ambulance.

"I asked him what had happened several times," he said. "He was very rude and non-cooperative and refused to say. But when I saw him on the platform the next day he thanked me for looking after him."

The next thing the officer knew Mr Snell's mother had made a complaint accusing him and the other officers of covering up an assault on her son.

DC Naylor said his life and that of his wife, Dawn, and their two daughters, Lucy and Chloe, had been on hold for the past three years. "It has put a strain on our marriage," he said. "We did try and keep it away from the children but when the court case got closer I had to explain what was happening.

"I had to tell them I might have to go to prison. The night before the verdict my youngest daughter asked me if I was going to prison the next day."

He also spoke of his shock at coming home to Wroughton to find his wife in tears after reading newspaper reports about the case. DC Naylor added that he was now taking time to consider his options for the future.

Tina Clarke