Surrey: Alleged rape victim denies being induced to report

A woman denies that the former head of a police oversight agency’s reputation in the news prompted her to accuse the former police agency of rape.

Michael Lockwood, 65, from Epsom, Surrey, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of sexually abusing two 14-year-old girls more than 30 years ago while he was working as a lifeguard at a leisure centre near Hull in East Yorkshire.

The first alleged victim claimed that the former director general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) raped her three times in a pantry.

Mr Lockwood denies a total of 17 charges, including three counts of rape and 14 counts of sexual assault against two girls between 1979 and 1986.

The first alleged victim, whose identity cannot be established, stated that he had repeatedly assaulted her indecently.

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

During her testimony on Tuesday, the alleged victim said that something someone said to her triggered her.

Sarah Elliott KC, defending, said: “You had seen this person on the news and that was the trigger?”

The woman replied, “No, that’s not true. I may have described seeing him as a trigger event, but it was not the trigger event.”

Ms Elliott said: “I would suggest to you that the sequence of events might have been this: you see Michael Lockwood on the news because he held public office and is often in the news. You recognise his face because he worked (at the leisure centre) 40 years ago. And then you google it and conclude that he is the person you allegedly had sex with.”

The woman replied, “No, that’s not how it happened at all.”

When questioned by prosecutor Jonathan Polnay KC, the woman said: “I could not close the case without filing a complaint and that was something I had to do.”

“What happened back then was his decision, not mine.”

Mr Lockwood was Director General of the IOPC, which handles complaints against the police in England and Wales, from 2018 to 2022.

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