Rapist Met Police officer faces life sentence

Rapist Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick is facing a life sentence after committing a “catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences” against a dozen women.

The disgraced Pc, 48, relied on his “charm” to “beguile and mislead” his victims, then used his “power and control” to stop them leaving or reporting him, Southwark Crown Court heard on Monday.

Carrick, who joined the Met in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in 2009, will be sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to 49 charges, including 24 counts of rape.

His crimes were all carried out while serving with the force – he guarded sites including embassies and the Houses of Parliament, and completed training courses, including one on domestic abuse in 2005.

The court heard how he sent one of his victims a photograph of himself with a police-issue gun, saying: “Remember I am the boss.”

He also used his police baton as a threat and handcuffs in an attack over 17 years between 2003 and 2020.

Prosecutor Tom Little KC said the “systematic” offending was “catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences” and it did not matter to Carrick who the victim was.

“The reality was, if he had the opportunity, he would rape them, sexually abuse or assault them and/or humiliate them,” he added.

The prosecutor said the women were “vulnerable”, with some “appreciably older or younger than” Carrick.

In a victim impact statement, one said she felt she had “encountered evil” after being raped by Carrick after meeting him at a bar in London.

He said “he was the safest person that she could be with and that he was a police officer” before taking her back to his nearby flat.

She “froze” when he put a black handgun to her head and said “you are not going” before repeatedly raping her.

“That night I felt I had encountered evil,” she said.

“I honestly thought he was going to kill me that night, I thought he was going to rape me and kill me and that my life would be over.

The woman, who was left with bite marks, bruising and clumps of hair missing, told an A&E nurse she had been raped by a police officer, the court heard.

But she was told she needed to be “ready” if she was going to complain and “she might be better to try to put it behind her and move on”.

Other women said they feared they would not be believed if they reported Carrick and no longer trusted the police after what he had done to them.

One said: “Knowing that he was in a position of trust also makes trusting people even harder because if you can’t trust someone who is supposed to serve and protect you, then who can you trust?

“It scares me for people as there are a lot of women on dating apps and it is just too easy to do what he did to me, to other women.”

“If he can do it to a lone female then anyone can do it.

“The thought of being alone with a male officer makes me very anxious, I wouldn’t want to be in a room with a male officer or even any of my friends or family.”

A woman who met Carrick on dating website Badoo described him as “acting like a monster when he was in drink”, while another, who Carrick met on a night out with other officers, described his “heavy drinking”.

Mr Little said a search of Carrick’s electronic devices revealed searches for pornography including words such as “extreme” and “painful”.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb is expected to sentence Carrick, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, on Tuesday for 49 charges.

They include 24 counts of rape, nine counts of sexual assault, five counts of assault by penetration, three counts of coercive and controlling behaviour, three counts of false imprisonment, two counts of attempted rape, one count of attempted sexual assault by penetration, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and one count of indecent assault.

He denied a further count of rape in September 2020 relating to a 13th woman, whose allegation triggered the investigation, with the Crown Prosecution Service deciding it was not in the public interest to proceed to trial.

Prosecutor Tom Little KC said the case fell short of meriting a whole-life sentence – because he had not killed anyone and pleaded guilty – but called for a life sentence with a fixed minimum term.

Alisdair Williamson KC, defending, said Carrick “accepts fully responsibility for what he has done” and that it is likely any life sentence will “bring him close to, if not to, the close of his natural life”.

“He cannot ask for mercy and does not,” he added.

The Met was forced to apologise and admit Carrick should have been rooted out earlier after it emerged he came to police attention over nine incidents – including allegations of rape, domestic violence and harassment – between 2000 and 2021, with all but one of the incidents relating to his behaviour towards women.

Carrick faced no criminal sanctions or misconduct findings and police chiefs across England and Wales have since been asked to have all officers checked against national police databases by the end of March.

He was finally sacked from the force last month after pleading guilty and being unmasked as one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.

Carrick’s crimes are set to form part of the independent inquiry looking at the murder of Sarah Everard, who was raped and strangled by then-serving Met officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.