Trumbull prosecutor: Man who raped, infected and injured daughter should stay in prison

Staff report

WARREN

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins continues to oppose parole for David Lockney, 59, who has been in prison 28 years for the “horrific injury and suffering” of his daughter, who he repeatedly raped when she was 6 and 7 years old in 1986 and 1987.

Lockney, formerly of Lordstown, is serving four sentences of 10 years to life and is eligible for a parole hearing next month.

“What Lockney did repeatedly to [the victim] and the sheer magnitude of the intentional violence on her little body parts was so horrific that words cannot serve to give a true explanation of the pain and suffering [she] endured,” Watkins told the parole board in 2011 letter, the last time he was eligible for parole.

In a letter this month, Watkins said he; Atty. Carol Sopkovich, then an assistant prosecutor; and investigator Sue Stinedurf “will never forget” the victim in that case.

“Imagine a 7-year-old child being repeatedly raped by her own father; and then, when very ill from injuries her little body received during the rapes, that same father denied her medical treatment. He just let her suffer.”

Calling Lockney a “monster predator,” Watkins reiterated his earlier request that Lockey never be released into society.

“Would you want this man living next door to your grandchildren?” he asked.

The girl would have died if not for intervention by an aunt and another relative, he said.

An investigator with Trumbull County Children Services with 14 years’ experience at the time she investigated the Lockney case told the parole board in 2002 that it was “the worst case I ever had,” according to her letter.

The girl had to be hospitalized for 21/2 weeks and had to be treated for herpes and two other sexually transmitted diseases Lockney caused, Watkins and the investigator said.

Watkins added that the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote in 2008 outlawed the death penalty for child rapists who seriously injure but do not kill a child.

“He is the poster person for the death penalty for child rapists,” Watkins said.