Michael Lockwood, 65, former head of the police watchdog, is on trial for allegedly raping and indecently assaulting two 14-year-old girls nearly 40 years ago while working as a lifeguard.
Lockwood, Former IOPC Director General, faces accusations of three rapes and 14 indecent assaults, which are claimed to have occurred between 1979 and 1986. The court heard that Lockwood, in his 20s, allegedly raped one of the girls repeatedly in a storeroom at a leisure center near Hull, East Yorkshire. It is also alleged that he pulled another girl into a male lavatory cubicle at the center, where he kissed and sexually touched her.
Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay KC told the Old Bailey that Lockwood worked as a lifeguard and fitness instructor then, at the leisure center while a student at Hull University and later, as a senior auditor at Humberside County Council. Lockwood eventually became the director general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), the police complaints watchdog for England and Wales.
The first complainant, now in her 50s, came forward in 2020. She described how Lockwood gave her lifts home in his Ford Capri, kissed her, and led her to a storeroom where he assaulted her. She believed they were in a relationship and trusted him, the prosecutor said. Lockwood allegedly assaulted and raped her multiple times in the storeroom. The complainant testified that she did not resist because she feared getting into trouble and being banned from the leisure center.
Lockwood denies the charges, claiming he never had sexual intercourse with anyone at the leisure center and did not recall a store cupboard on the ground floor. He initially denied knowing the first complainant but later suggested she was obsessed with him.
A second woman, also 14 when she met Lockwood, came forward after reading about the allegations in a local newspaper. She recounted how Lockwood pulled her into a male lavatory cubicle and later sexually touched her in the same place. She also claimed that he engaged in sexual activity with her in the back seat of his mother’s car when she was 15.
Lockwood, from Epsom, Surrey, denies three counts of rape and six counts of indecent assault relating to the first complainant between October 1985 and March 1986. He also pleaded not guilty to eight indecent assaults on the second complainant between August 1979 and August 1981.
The trial is ongoing.
