David Carrick: Metropolitan Police sack serial rapist police officer

A serial rapist who used his role as a Metropolitan Police officer to put fear into his victims has been sacked by the force.

David Carrick, 48, admitted dozens of rape and sexual offences against 12 women across two decades.

The Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has apologised for failings and told BBC Breakfast opportunities to remove Carrick from policing were missed.

Carrick was dismissed at a misconduct hearing on Tuesday morning.

Hywel Jenkins, counsel for the commissioner, told the Met panel that the offending was "heinous, targeted and deliberate" and the impact on victims and their families could be "summed up in one word - catastrophic".

In the chair for the hearing, the Met's Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe said she was in no doubt Carrick's actions amounted to gross misconduct.

She said: "Carrick's multiple convictions for multiple serious offences plainly discredits the police service and undermines public confidence in it."

Carrick did not attend the hearing, did not respond to the disciplinary charges and did not have legal representation.

Speaking in the House of Commons after his formal dismissal, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said Carrick had carried out "a monstrous campaign of abuse".

"It is vital that the Metropolitan Police and other forces double down on their efforts to root out corrupt officers; this may mean more shocking cases come to light in the short-term," she said.

The home secretary said the case would now also be considered in the inquiry, chaired by Dame Elish Angiolini KC, which was set up to look into the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens.

But Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper accused the government of failing to address "appalling failures in the police vetting and misconduct processes".

Carrick served as an armed officer in London with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command and was suspended from duty when he was arrested in October 2021.

His crimes, which included 24 counts of rape, spanned 2003 to 2020 and most took place in Hertfordshire, where he lived.

Meeting some of the women on dating websites, Carrick, from Stevenage, would control what they wore, what they ate, where they slept and he even stopped some of them from speaking to their own children.

The Met apologised after it emerged Carrick was brought to the attention of police over nine incidents including allegations of rape, domestic violence and harassment between 2000 and 2021.

At Tuesday's hearing, the assistant commissioner said the public reaction showed how his conduct had "gravely undermined" confidence in the police.

Ms Rolfe added that the case had caused public harm, particularly to women and girls who may be less likely to "come forward and report they have been the victims of criminal offences."

Sir Mark told BBC Breakfast: "What he's done to his victims is truly abhorrent. Their courage in coming forward is truly admirable. But we've let London down - he's been a police officer for 20 years.

"Through a combination of weak policies and weak decisions, over those 20 years we missed opportunities when he joined and subsequently, as behaviour came to the fore, we should have removed him from policing.

"Whether it would have affected him being a sex offender I don't know, but he shouldn't have been doing it as a police officer."

He agreed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that it was a "spectacular failure" by his force.

The Met said a total of 1,633 cases of alleged sexual offences or domestic violence involving 1,071 officers and other staff were being reviewed from the last 10 years to make sure the appropriate decisions were made.

Former Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales, Vera Baird, who resigned from her post last year, said: "The Metropolitan Police seem incapable of not employing - and furthermore retaining - some quite evil people."

Speaking in Commons earlier, the home secretary said: "Yesterday was a dark day for British policing and the Metropolitan Police as an officer admitted being responsible for a monstrous campaign of abuse."

She said it was "intolerable for [the victims] to have suffered as they have. They were manipulated and isolated and subjected to horrific abuse".

"For anyone to have gone through such torment is harrowing, but for it to have happened at the hands of someone they entrusted to keep people safe is almost beyond comprehension," she added.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan it was "unacceptable" that "there were various opportunities where the chance to get rid of [Carrick] and get justice were missed".

Speaking on Tuesday, he said: "That is one of the things that Sir Mark Rowley is getting to the bottom of. The reality is there are so many cultural issues within the police service."

Mr Khan also said there would be efforts to strip Carrick of his police pension.

Guidance from the Home Office states that up to 65% can be forfeited if a conviction was "committed in connection with their service as a member of a police force" and has been certified by the home secretary as "liable to lead to a serious loss of confidence in the public service" or "gravely injurious to the interests of the state".

The prime minister's spokesman said Rishi Sunak told a meeting of the cabinet "the police must address the failings that happened in this case, restore public confidence, and do everything possible to ensure women and girls are safe in their communities and homes".

Carrick pleaded guilty to six offences at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, and had already admitted 43 others in December.

He is due to be sentenced in February.

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