Ex-police watchdog chief accused of raping girl, 14, in store cupboard, court told

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A former police watchdog chief allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl in a leisure centre store cupboard and sexually abused her in the back of his Ford Capri, a court heard.

Michael Lockwood, 65, denies 17 historic sex attacks – three rapes and 14 indecent assaults – relating to two 14-year-old girls between 1979 and 1986.

Lockwood went on to have a “distinguished” career in local government before becoming director general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which is the police complaints watchdog for England and Wales.

One of the alleged victims, now in her 50s, said Lockwood was in his 20s and working part-time as a lifeguard at a leisure centre near Hull in East Yorkshire, when she was abused.

She alleges she was repeatedly raped in a chemical store cupboard and indecently assaulted after being offered a lift in Lockwood’s car.

The Old Bailey heard a second woman was traced by police after reading about the initial allegations against Lockwood in the Hull Daily Mail.

She met him in the late 1970s and was still seeing him after she turned 16 in the belief they were in a “proper relationship”, the court heard on Friday.

In a police interview, played in court, she said that she had thought Lockwood was “wonderful” and had “loved him”.

She said he would have known her age because he helped her with maths before she sat her GCSEs while he was studying at Hull University.

Now, she felt that she had been “groomed”.

She said he must have known her age because of her exams, adding: “It was not a case of lying about how old I was.”

Giving evidence in court, the woman read a list of “likes” and “dislikes” about Lockwood which had been written in her fourth-form school exercise book.

The list of likes included his “personality”, “bum” and “hairy chest” and the dislikes included “never goes anywhere”, “the way he treats me” and “he lies”.

Cross-examining, Sarah Elliott KC asked how the woman felt when she first saw Lockwood had been charged with offences against another girl in the 1980s.

Ms Elliott said: “One of the things that must have been going through your mind, there was some sort of overlap between what was being alleged and you going out with him?

“You must have been upset at the thought that perhaps there was somebody else at the time you believed you were in an exclusive relationship with him?”

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, replied: “I was concerned.”

She went on to say that she had learned Lockwood was engaged to someone after she started seeing him.

It is alleged Lockwood pulled her into a male toilet cubicle at the leisure centre where he kissed and sexually touched her. Jurors heard it was common knowledge among fellow lifeguards who sang about them being “locked in the lavatory” together.

It is also claimed Lockwood indecently assaulted the girl in the back of his mother’s car after she turned 15.

The court heard how their relationship ended when Lockwood went to live in Epsom in Surrey.

In a police interview last year, Lockwood said he was “shocked and upset” at the woman’s allegations. He accepted they had been in a sexual relationship but insisted that at the time he believed she was over 16.

He has pleaded not guilty to eight indecent assaults relating to the witness on dates between August 1979 and August 1981.

Lockwood, of Epsom, Surrey, also denies three counts of rape and six counts of indecent assault relating to the other complainant between October 1985 and March 1986.

The Old Bailey trial before Mr Justice Bennathan continues.