Former police watchdog boss given ultimatum by Suella Braverman cleared of sex charges

Former police watchdog chief Michael Lockwood has been cleared of historic child sex offences against two women, 19 months after former Home Secretary Suella Braverman gave him an ultimatum that led to his resignation.

The 65-year-old was accused of raping and molesting two 14-year-old girls in historic allegations dating back 40 years.

He resigned from his post as director general of the IOPC in December 2022 when the allegations first emerged, but before he was charged.

It was after then Home Secretary Suella Braverman gave him the options of being suspended or resignation.

It was claimed at trial at the Old Bailey Mr Lockwood had repeatedly raped and indecently assaulted a girl at a leisure centre in Hull during the 1980s while working as a lifeguard.

The second complainant came forward after the first accusation surfaced.

She said he had indecently assaulted her in a male toilet and storeroom at the same centre.

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

Mr Lockwood denied the accusations, saying the first were fabricated and that there had never been any sexual activity.

He accepted a relationship with the second girl, but said nothing sexual happened until she was over 16.

The jury today found him not guilty of 17 charges after deliberating for 10 hours.

The counts included three of rape and six of indecent assault for the first woman, and eight indecent assaults on the second. Both women are now aged in their 50s.

The first complainant said she naively thought she was in a “proper relationship” when he first kissed her, jurors heard. It was claimed he 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 was pulled by Mr Lockwood 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 told the trial he was “absolutely shocked” by these allegations and did not recognise the name of the first complainant.

Mr Lockwood was the first person chief of the IOPC after it replaced the Independent Police Complaints Commission in 2018, after a career in local government.

His acquittal will raise questions over the actions of Ms Braverman, who named him before he was charged and then said publicly she had given him the option to be suspended or resign.

It was a day after the IOPC announced he was stepping down for private reasons.

The IOPC said how he left the post was a matter for the Home Office, a spokesperson for which said: "We cannot comment on the previous actions of a former Home Secretary from a former administration."

Ms Braverman has been approached for comment.