Lara Croft producer arrested on sex charges

Tomb Raider executive is busted for allegedly seeking a 9-year-old girl for a third party.

By Hank Hyena

Dec 17, 1999 | Dec. 17, 1999

Lara Croft's voluptuousness isn't what Kenneth Lockley was seeking last week, reports the New York Post and the (London) Independent. A creator of the computer game Tomb Raider was arrested last week when he allegedly tried to procure a 9-year-old girl for sexual purposes.

Lockley was busted in London's Piccadilly district at the Regent's Palace Hotel after he allegedly sought to persuade an undercover officer from Scotland Yard's pedophilia and child pornography unit to obtain a girl for an unnamed third person to have sex with.

The 28-year-old producer is an executive with Core Design Ltd., which developed Tomb Raider for parent American company Eidos Interactive. Following his indictment on Dec. 10, Lockley was remanded to custody. He's been suspended pending investigation from his job which he has held for about two years.

This scandal is the third recent incident involving computer technology executives. Patrick Naughton, 34, of the Disney affiliate Infoseek was charged in September with crossing state lines to meet a 13-year-old girl who he met in a nasty chat room called Dads & Daughter Sex. Digital Entertainment Network founder Marc Collins-Rector previously had to settle a civil lawsuit for his alleged sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy who he contacted through an Internet bulletin board.

Lockley's arrest is an embarrassment to mega-selling Tomb Raider, whose heroine is adored by millions of child fans worldwide. Already, the game has been dubbed Womb Raiders by mocking net chatters.

• View blog reactions