𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A Reform UK councillor has been charged with 35 offences including 12 counts of rape and one count of making indecent images of a child. George Madgwick, a Reform UK councillor on Hampshire County Council, was also charged with two counts of sexual assault and two further counts of assault. A Reform UK spokesman confirmed the councillor, aged 37 from Portsmouth, had been suspended. A spokesman said: “Cllr Madgwick has been suspended from Reform UK with immediate effect”.

The charges follow an investigation by the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary into allegations relating to four complainants between 2008 and 2021. In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service said: “The Crown Prosecution Service has decided to prosecute George Madgwick for serious sexual offences, including multiple counts of rape.”

The statement continued: “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 any way prejudice these proceedings.”

Madgwick will appear at Portsmouth Magistrates Court on November 25.

Hampshire Police said they had launched their investigation on July 24 last year after they had received a report on a sexual offence.

Officers then arrested a man in Wandsworth, south-west London, on January 6.

The force said the allegations relate to four victims, who were aged between 16 and 17 at the time and are alleged to have taken place between 2008 and 2021 in Portsmouth and Wales.