By Lucy Caulkett-
A disgraced Metropolitan Police armed officer who used his role to put fear into his victims has admitted to 49 charges of rape and sexual offences against 12 women in one of the Met’s worst and most shameful ever case of criminality.
The charges relate to more than 80 sexual offences, including at least 48 rapes.
Sexual abuser, David Carrick, 48, (pictured)who met some victims through dating websites, pleaded guilty to 49 offences, across two decades.
Carrick admitted raping nine women, some on multiple occasions over months or years, with many of those attacks involving violence that would have left them physically injured.
The Met has apologised after it failed to remove him from the force after it emerged he had come to the attention of police over nine incidents, including rape allegations, between 2000 and 2021.
Downing Street said Carrick’s crimes were “appalling” and urged forces to root out criminal officers “to restore the public’s trust which has been shattered”.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he was “absolutely sickened and appalled” by Carrick’s crimes.
He said “serious questions must be answered about how he was able to abuse his position as an officer in this horrendous manner”.
The Met said 1,633 cases – involving 1,071 of its own officers and staff – of alleged sexual offences or domestic violence are being reviewed.
Guilty Pleas
PC David Carrick – who was known to his colleagues as “B*****d Dave” – entered guilty pleas when he appeared at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Monday.
Carrick joined the Met in August 2001 after serving with the army and worked with the force’s parliamentary and diplomatic command from 2009.
A senior officer said his offending was “unprecedented in policing”.
Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray, the Met’s lead for professionalism, said: “We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behaviour and because we didn’t, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organisation.
“We are truly sorry that being able to continue to use his role as a police officer may have prolonged the suffering of his victims.
“We know they felt unable to come forward sooner because he told them they would not be believed.”
“Policing has definitely taken a step back”, says Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray
His offences spanned 2003 to 2020 and most took place in Hertfordshire, where he lived.
He would control what the women wore, what they ate, where they slept and even stopped some of the women from speaking to their own children.
Jaswant Narwal, the chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Carrick held a role where he was trusted with the responsibility of protecting the public, but yet over 17 years, in his private life, he did the exact opposite.
“This is a man who relentlessly degraded, belittled and sexually assaulted and raped women.
“As time went on, the severity of his offending intensified as he became emboldened, thinking he would get away with it.”
She said the “scale of the degradation Carrick subjected his victims to is unlike anything I’ve encountered in my 34 years with the Crown Prosecution Service”.
Carrick, who served with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, met some victims through online dating sites such as Tinder and Badoo, and used his role as a police officer to gain their trust.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said it was “an appalling case” and that Rishi Sunak’s “thoughts are with all of [Carrick’s] victims”.
“We have been clear, there is no place in our police forces for officers who fall so seriously short of the acceptable standards of behaviour and are not fit to wear the uniform.”
Rapist Whipped and urinated on victims
His offences included whipping a woman with belt, urinating on some of his victims, and locking some in a small cupboard under the stairs in his Hertfordshire home for hours without food or forced to clean his house naked.
He called women “fat and lazy” or his “slave” as he controlled them financially, isolated them from friends and family, and forbade them from speaking with other men or even their own children.
The court heard that over drinks in a pub in September 2020, Carrick told her he was a firearms officer nicknamed “B*****d Dave”, showed her his warrant card and boasted of meeting famous people, including then-prime minister Boris Johnson, in the course of his work.
“He introduced himself as a police officer and said ‘you are safe with me’,” said senior CPS prosecutor Shilpa Shah.
He used online dating sites like Badoo and Tinder to target women, and came across initially as “fun-loving, charming, and charismatic”, investigators said.
“He introduced himself as a police officer and said ‘you are safe with me’,” said senior CPS prosecutor Shilpa Shah.
“Most victims said they feared they would not be believed because he was a police officer.” She added: “He was very manipulative, self-confident almost to the point of being cocky, and he knew what he was doing.”
Prolific And Callous
Detective Chief Inspector Iain Moor, the senior investigating officer, said the “sheer number of offences” showed Carrick’s “prolific and callous nature” and he expects even more victims to come forward.
The disgraced officer “thrived on humiliating his victims and cleverly used his professional position to intimate there was no point in them trying to seek help because they would never be believed”, Mr Moor said.
“The coercive nature of his offending undermined his victims in the most destructive way,” he added.
Mr Moor described the false imprisonment charges as “shocking”, adding: “Carrick forced his victims into a small under-stairs cupboard at his home address where they stayed intimidated and humiliated until he chose when they could come out. I have seen bigger dog crates.
“It is unbelievable to think these offences could have been committed by a serving police officer.
“The offending was absolutely abhorrent and I’m disgusted by it.”
Following his guilty pleas, the Met Police confirmed Carrick “had come to the attention of the Met and other forces on nine occasions prior to October 2021”.
They included allegations of rape, domestic violence, and harassment between 2000 and 2021 but he faced no criminal sanctions or misconduct findings.
Carrick, from Stevenage, was also the subject of five complaints from the public while serving with the Met Police, according to the force.
Unprecedented
Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray, the Met’s lead for professionalism, said Carrick’s offending was “unprecedented in policing” and apologised to his victims for failing to remove him from the force.
“We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behaviour and because we didn’t, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organisation,” she said.
“We are truly sorry that being able to continue to use his role as a police officer may have prolonged the suffering of his victims.”
A misconduct hearing is due to be heard in Carrick’s absence on Tuesday.
Chief Crown Prosecutor Jaswant Narwal said the degradation Carrick caused his victims was unlike anything she had seen in her career.
“This is one of the most shocking cases the Crown Prosecution Service has dealt with involving a serving police officer,” she said.
“Carrick held a role where he was trusted with the responsibility of protecting the public, yet over 17 years in his private life he did the exact opposite.
“This is a man who relentlessly degraded, belittled, sexually assaulted and raped women.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was “absolutely sickened by the truly abhorrent offences” that Carrick committed.
“Serious questions must be answered about how he was able to abuse his position as an officer,” he added.
Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she will sentence Carrick over two days from 6 February.