Reform UK’s leader on Hampshire county council has been charged with 12 counts of rape and one of distributing indecent images of a child.
George Madgwick, 37, who is a councillor in Portsmouth and leads the Reform group on the council, was a prominent voice linked to recent protests in the town connected to the arrival of asylum seekers on small boats.
A Crown Prosecution Service statement said the charges followed a police investigation into allegations connected to four complainants aged 16 and 17 at the time, and were alleged to have taken place in Portsmouth and Wales between 2008 and 2021.
The charges comprise 12 allegations of rape; eight of actual bodily harm; two of assault by penetration; two of sexual assault; two of controlling and coercive behaviour; two of making an indecent image of a child; one of distribution of an indecent image of a child; one of stalking; one of making threats to kill; one of false imprisonment; one of criminal damage; one of theft; and one of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child.
Madgwick is scheduled to appear at Portsmouth magistrates court on 25 November. A CPS spokesperson said: “The Crown Prosecution Service has decided to prosecute George Madgwick for serious sexual offences, including multiple counts of rape. He has also been charged with making a threat to kill, false imprisonment and stalking.
“Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence and that it is in the public interest to bring the case to court.
“We remind all concerned that proceedings against the defendant are now active and that he has the right to a fair trial. There should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information which could in anyway prejudice these proceedings.”
Madgwick was involved recently in an incident in which protesters gathered outside a Portsmouth hotel after mistaking Pakistan’s under-19s cricket team for asylum seekers, liaising with hotel staff and persuading protesters to leave.
A Reform spokesperson said: “Cllr Madgwick has been suspended from Reform UK with immediate effect.”
