A Suffolk probation officer who had a sexual relationship with a client will be sentenced in September.

Before Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday (June 17) was Laura Nicholls, 28, of Fuller Way, Stowmarket.

She pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to misconduct in a public office between June and October last year by having a sexual relationship with a probationer and doing an act tending or intended to pervert the course of justice by making a false statement to police on October 1 last year.

She had also denied two offences of misconduct in a judicial or public office between June and October last year by disclosing confidential information about other probationers and her colleagues to a probationer and was due to have faced a trial.

However on Thursday (June 17) Phillip Farr, prosecuting, said he wouldn’t be seeking a trial on these two offences but said he would be including details of them during his opening of the case to the court.

Judge Martyn Levett ordered the two offences of misconduct in a public office to lie on the court file.

Edward Renvoize, for Hamilton, said an appointment with a probation officer had been arranged for his client on June 21 and psychological and psychiatric reports would also be available to the court at the sentencing hearing.

Sentence was adjourned until September 3 to allow a probation report to be prepared on Hamilton by an officer from Essex probation service.

Judge Levett told Hamilton that the fact that a probation report was being prepared on her should not be seen as an indication of any possible sentence.

The court heard that Hamilton was on bail and had been on a tagged curfew since May.