Danny Lockwood

Danny Lockwood (born 15 December 1958) is a former amateur rugby league player, journalist and now publisher. Lockwood is the publisher of the rugby league newspaper League Weekly,[1] and owner and publisher of The Press, a weekly local newspaper based in Batley, West Yorkshire.[2]

Rugby league career

As an amateur rugby league player Lockwood was selected to represent Yorkshire and Great Britain (BARLA). His main clubs were Dewsbury Celtic and Bradford Dudley Hill. He played several seasons of rugby union in the USA and one season of semi-professional rugby league in Australia.

Journalism and publishing

As a journalist Lockwood, has worked on the Yorkshire Post, West Australian and Yorkshire Evening Post. In 1993 he became editor of the (now) Johnston Press weekly local Dewsbury Reporter and, later, their Lancaster Guardian title.

Lockwood launched The Press in 2002 and continued as editor and columnist through several apparent ownership changes. In 2011 Lockwood claimed that he "saved" the publication after serious financial problems.[3]

In December 2011 Lockwood self-published a book called The Islamic Republic of Dewsbury. It is described as "the story of a cultural revolution and social decay in the once-proud Yorkshire mill town of Dewsbury" and "a chronicle of more than 20 years of failed multi-culturalism."[4]

In 2007 Lockwood was the subject of a high-profile libel trial initiated by the then Dewbury MP Shahid Malik, which ended in a hung jury after a two-week trial at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.[5] The case was subsequently dropped after the men agreed to publish a joint statement and to meet their own costs.[6][7]

In 2010 a large-scale protest outside Dewsbury police station was organised by left-wing activists and friends of ousted MP Shahid Malik after Lockwood wrote about Derrick Bird, the perpetrator of the Cumbria shootings, saying “If Derrick Bird had been carrying a Koran he would have been celebrated as a hero by tens of thousands, possibly more of so called “British” Muslims”.[8]

In 2014, Lockwood was found guilty at Kirklees Magistrates Court of common assault following an incident outside a public house in April 2013. The conviction was overturned by Judge James Spencer sitting at Leeds Crown Court on Friday 13 June 2014 after he described prosecution witnesses as "unreliable" and ruled that the publisher acted lawfully and in self-defence.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "League Weekly". League Weekly. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  2. ↑ "Home || The Press Newspaper - The Intelligent Weekly". Thepressnews.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  3. ↑ Lambourne, Helen (2011-04-21). "Dewsbury paper The Press saved from closure after founder back on board". Holdthefrontpage.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  4. ↑ Danny Lockwood. "ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF DEWSBURY". Amazon.co.uk. ISBN 9780957096424. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  5. ↑ "Costs soar as Malik libel case goes to full jury trial". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  6. ↑ "Minister drops newspaper libel claim". Yorkshire Evening Post. 2008-05-24. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ "The Insider's blog: When a journalist turns rogue". Hopenothate.org.uk. 2012-03-29. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  9. ↑ "Press publisher Lockwood wins assault case appeal - The Press". Thepressnews.co.uk. 2014-06-16. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
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