A police van is parked behind railings in Westminster in London [File: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP]
Michael Lockwood’s charges include six counts of indecent assault and three offences of rape against a girl.

London, June 18 (RHC)-- British prosecutors have authorised sexual offence charges against Michael Lockwood, the former director general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The charges authorised on Friday against Lockwood are six counts of indecent assault and three offences of rape against a girl under the age of 16, the CPS said.   The crimes were allegedly committed between October 1985 and March 1986.

The 64-year-old resigned from his post at the IOPC in December last year after it emerged he was the subject of a police probe. “After carefully considering all of the evidence provided to us by Humberside Police, we have authorised charges against Michael Lockwood, 64, for nine offences under the Sexual Offences Act 1956,” said Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Special Crime Division at the CPS.

“Mr Lockwood has been charged with six counts of indecent assault and three offences of rape against a girl under the age of 16, alleged to have been committed during the 1980s,” she added.  According to the Sky News broadcaster, Lockwood is due to appear before magistrates in Hull on June 28th.