Former IOPC chief Michael Lockwood acquitted of raping two girls in 1980s | UK News

A former head of England and Wales’ police watchdog has been cleared of raping and sexually assaulting two 14-year-old girls 40 years ago.

Michael Lockwood, 65, resigned as director general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in December 2022 after the allegations first emerged.

He is alleged to have repeatedly raped and indecently assaulted a young girl in a storage room at a leisure centre near Hull where he worked as a lifeguard in the 1980s.

Following publicity surrounding the allegations, a second woman told police that Lockwood had indecently assaulted her in the men’s toilets and storage room of the centre.

Lockwood denied any sexual activity with the first complainant and it was alleged she mistook him for another lifeguard after seeing him on the news. He admitted to having a relationship with the second girl but said nothing sexual happened until she was 16.

A jury at the Old Bailey in London deliberated for almost 10 hours to find Lockwood, of Epsom in Surrey, not guilty of 17 charges relating to the two women, now in their 50s.

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

Lockwood appeared emotional in the dock and thanked the jury before leaving the courtroom.

The court heard that Lockwood allegedly met the schoolgirls while he was working part-time as a lifeguard and studying at Hull University or working as an auditor for Humberside County Council.

The first complainant said she had naively thought she was in a “normal relationship” when he first kissed her, jurors heard. He allegedly sexually assaulted her as he dropped her off at her home in his Ford Capri, and repeatedly raped her in the leisure centre’s storeroom.

“It wasn’t until I had children that I started to understand that it probably wasn’t my fault. I started to understand that it was abuse and it wasn’t a consensual relationship,” she said.

She said she felt compelled to report Lockwood years later but “didn’t get any joy” from the impact it had on him. She told jurors: “I felt emotionally vulnerable. I knew at some point I would have to deal with this. I knew it would open a Pandora’s box.”

“I couldn’t have moved on without speaking out and that was something I had to do. What happened at the time was his choice, not mine.”

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

It was alleged that Lockwood dragged her into a men’s toilet cubicle at the centre, where he kissed and sexually touched her, then used the storage room. Jurors heard this was “common knowledge” among the other lifeguards, who sang a rhyme about being “locked in the toilet together”.

But in his testimony, Lockwood said he was “absolutely shocked” when confronted with the allegations.

He said he did not know the name of the first complainant and was “particularly upset” by the second woman’s statements because she was a former girlfriend. He told jurors: “She was someone I loved. It was a long-standing relationship.”

About their age difference, he said: “At the time, I thought she was acting mature, in an adult way. I was pretty immature at that age.”

The defendant, who is married with two children, denied having any sexual activity with the first complainant and said he would never have had sex with a 14-year-old girl or taken advantage of anyone.

Lockwood was the first person to lead the IOPC after it replaced the Independent Police Complaints Commission in 2018. His public profile was boosted following the killing of Sarah Everard by a Metropolitan Police officer and the riots following the fatal police shooting of Chris Kaba in London.

Lockwood previously took charge of Grenfell Tower after the fatal fire in 2017. After the sexual assault allegations emerged, he resigned from his role as co-chair of the Grenfell Memorial Trust.