Ex-police watchdog chief not guilty of raping girls

Michael Lockwood has been found not guilty by a jury at the Old Bailey

The former head of the police watchdog has been found not guilty of raping and molesting two 14-year-old girls 40 years ago.

Michael Lockwood, 65, of Epsom, Surrey, was accused of sexually abusing the girls when he worked part-time at a leisure centre near Hull in his 20s.

A jury at the Old Bailey, London, found him not guilty of all 17 charges relating to the women, who are now in their 50s.

Mr Lockwood resigned from his job as director general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in December 2022 after allegations first emerged.

It was claimed Mr Lockwood repeatedly raped and indecently assaulted a girl in a storeroom at the leisure centre where he worked as a lifeguard in the 1980s.

Following publicity about the claims, a second woman told police he had indecently assaulted her in a male toilet and storeroom at the centre.

He was accused of three rapes and six indecent assaults on the first complainant and eight indecent assaults on the second.

Mr Lockwood denied any sexual activity with the first complainant and it was alleged she must have mistaken him for another lifeguard after seeing him on the news.

He accepted having a relationship with the second girl, but said nothing sexual happened until she had turned 16.

'Absolutely shocked'

The first complainant said she naively thought she was in a “proper relationship” when he first kissed her, jurors heard.

It was claimed Mr Lockwood indecently assaulted her as he dropped her home in his Ford Capri and repeatedly raped her in the storeroom at the leisure centre.

It was alleged the second complainant’s relationship with Mr Lockwood overlapped his engagement to his university girlfriend and the alleged offences against the first woman, although the defendant denied it.

It was claimed Mr Lockwood would pull her into a male toilet cubicle at the centre where he kissed and sexually touched her, later using the storeroom.

Jurors heard it was “common knowledge” among fellow lifeguards who sang a nursery rhyme about them being “locked in the lavatory” together.

Mr Lockwood said he was “absolutely shocked” when confronted with the allegations.

Increased profile

The jury deliberated for nearly 10 hours to find Mr Lockwood not guilty.

Det Supt Craig Nicholson, from Humberside Police, said: “I would like to offer my assurance that we take all reports of sexual offences incredibly seriously and we will always thoroughly investigate."

Mr Lockwood was the first person to lead the IOPC after it replaced the Police Complaints Commission in 2018.

In recent years, his public profile was heightened after the murder of Sarah Everard by a Metropolitan Police officer and aftermath of the fatal police shooting of Chris Kaba in London.