The 65-year-old former police chief raped and abused two 14-year-old girls in a storage room and a toilet while working as a lifeguard at a leisure centre, the court was told

• Michael Lockwood is accused of three counts of rape and 14 counts of sexual assault
• He is a former Director General of the Independent Office for Police Conduct
• All crimes are said to have taken place between 1979 and 1986.

A court has heard that the former head of the police supervisory authority raped and indecently abused two 14-year-old girls over 30 years ago while working as a lifeguard at a leisure center.

Michael Lockwood, 65, is on trial at the Old Bailey on 17 charges.

These include three rapes and 14 sexual assaults on children between 1979 and 1986.

It is alleged that when he was in his twenties he repeatedly raped one of the girls in a storage room at a leisure centre near Hull in East Yorkshire.

It was alleged that he dragged another girl into a men’s restroom in the center, where he kissed and sexually touched her.

Jurors heard that it was “common knowledge” among fellow lifeguards that they sang about being “locked in the toilet together.”

Opening the trial on Thursday, prosecutor Jonathan Polnay KC said Lockwood worked at the leisure centre while studying at Hull University and later after taking a job as chief auditor at Humberside County Council.

He had a “distinguished” career in local government before becoming director general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), the watchdog for complaints about police in England and Wales, the court was told.

The first woman to come forward, now in her 50s, was a “naive and inexperienced” 14-year-old schoolgirl when she met Lockwood at the leisure center in the 1980s, jurors heard.

Lockwood gave her a ride home in his Ford Capri, which she found “incredibly cool,” the court was told.

Mr Polnay said: “The defendant was at a very different stage in his life.

“He was 12 years her senior and already well advanced in his career as chief auditor at Humberside County Council.

“The imbalance is evident in everything – age, money, experience and power.”

The girl and her friends began hanging out with Lockwood at the recreation center and eventually went to his house, Mr Polnay said.

“When they arrived, the defendant let the girls in and they all sat on his sofa and chatted for a bit.

“After it got dark, it was suggested to take a walk.

“When they reached a depression in the grass where they could not be seen from the road, the defendant leaned over and kissed her.”

“She was so naive and inexperienced that she thought the fact that she kissed Mike meant they were in a real relationship.”

He kissed her again and touched her breasts as he dropped her off in his Capri around the corner from her house, it was alleged.

Mr Polnay said: “The prosecution says there was a reason for this because he did not want to be seen by her family or neighbours as he knew what he was doing was wrong.”

The jury was told that he later indecently assaulted and raped her in a storage room.

Mr Polnay said: “At no point did Mr Lockwood ask her if she wanted any of this to happen.”

“He was in control and as (the girl) will tell you, ‘It just happened and I didn’t fight back.'”

Mr Polnay told the jury: “She was a child then. She trusted Mr Lockwood.”

“She was afraid that if anyone found out what had happened, she would get in trouble and be banned from the leisure center – a child’s idea of ​​what had been done to her.

“The prosecution says what happened was anything but consensual. (She) did not consent to sex with the defendant. She submitted to his control, not consent.”

“The age – she a child in the third grade, he a grown man of 26 – all the circumstances and thus the serious power imbalance point to this.”

Lockwood is accused of raping the child twice more, Mr Polnay.

After a pregnancy scare, she stopped visiting the leisure center.

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The woman went to police after events in her life caused her to reflect on events from her past in 2020, jurors heard.

In a recorded interview played to the jury, the woman said Lockwood had been coming to her house for several months and playing with her in the pool before they kissed.

She said: “I was quite naive in some ways, I didn’t have a boyfriend before. I was very shy and didn’t have the confidence to talk to anyone.”

“He paid attention, talked and joked. He was pretty muscular.”

She said he then kissed her in the toilet.

“I just thought he was interested in me and it was something serious. But we didn’t talk about it.”

“He borrowed his mother’s car and picked me up.”

“We talked and then the situation developed that we went into the back seat and cuddled.”

She said Lockwood would come to her house and help her and her friends with their math homework.

At the time, he lived with his parents in an apartment above a store and they had sex in the back of the building, she said.

“I just thought he was wonderful. It was a kind of schoolgirl crush.

“To me he was my friend.

“That sounds stupid. I just thought: Obviously I was his girlfriend.”

“I loved him, I thought he loved me.”

She said they had sex for the first time a few months before her 16th birthday.

After his arrest, Lockwood initially denied knowing her and later claimed she was “obsessed” with him.

He insisted the allegations were untrue, saying: “I know for a fact that I never had sexual intercourse with anyone at the leisure centre.”

“I don’t remember there being a pantry downstairs. Maybe there was, but I would never have jeopardized my career or my job by having sex with anyone in a public place.”

A second woman, who was also 14 when she met Lockwood, came forward after reading reports of the sexual allegations in a local newspaper.

She met him for the first time at the age of 14 at the leisure center when Lockwood was 20 years old in 1979.

Lockwood was studying at Hull University at the time.

She said she went to the recreation center a few times a week and Lockwood talked to her during his breaks.

One day he pulled her into a men’s room and kissed her, it was said.

He then allegedly touched the girl sexually again in the same toilet.

Mr Polnay said: “It was pretty much common knowledge among the lifeguards that this happened during Mr Lockwood’s break.”

“One time the other lifeguards started singing a song about it with the lyrics ‘(girl’s name)’ and Mike got locked in the bathroom.”

Mr Polnay suggested that the singing may have prompted Lockwood to move his meetings with the girl to a storage room.

When the girl was 15, Lockwood allegedly engaged in sexual acts with her in the back seat of his mother’s car.

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Mr Polnay said: “Just before (the girl) turned 16, consensual sexual intercourse took place.”

“You will see that the indictment does not contain any charges in this regard.

“This is because, under the law at the time, no charges could be brought if the sexual conduct did not qualify as rape.

“However, the fact and timing of complete sexual intercourse are, in the prosecution’s view, very relevant to the issues you have to consider.”

In a police interview last year, Lockwood said he was “shocked and angered” by her allegations.

He admitted that the two had a sexual relationship, but stressed that at the time he believed she was over 16.

Lockwood, of Epsom, Surrey, denies three counts of rape and six counts of sexual assault in relation to the first plaintiff between October 1985 and March 1986.

He also pleaded not guilty to eight counts of indecent assault against the second plaintiff between August 1979 and August 1981.

The married father of two took up the £190,000 post at the IOPC in January 2018.

He resigned when news of the investigation against him became public.

He was born in Newcastle in 1959 and attended Hull University from 1978 to 1981, where he graduated in Geography and History.

He began training at the National Audit Office and moved around the country before working as an auditor for Humberside Council in the 1980s.

The trial continues at the Old Bailey before Judge Bennathan.