‘Prolific sex offender’ used status as Met Police officer to ‘relentlessly manipulate’ women

A police officer who has been described as “prolific serial sex offender”, has pleaded guilty to 49 charges against 12 women.

48-year-old armed Met Police officer David Carrick has pleaded guilty to offences including 24 counts of rape, spanning from 2003-2020.

Barbara Gray, an assistant commissioner for the Met who is also the force’s lead for professionalism, said: “Our work to identify and rid the Met of corrupt officers is determined and it is focused, and it will continue.”

The scale of Carrick’s offences, across 17 years, make him one of the worst sexual offenders of modern times. He “relentlessly manipulated” women using his status as a serving police officer.

Gray said: “Carrick is a prolific, serial sex offender who preyed on women over a period of 17 years, abusing his position as a police officer and committing the most horrific, degrading crimes.

“He used the fact he was a police officer to control and coerce his victims. We know they felt unable to come forward sooner because he told them they would not be believed. 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.”

Met Police Assistant Commissioner describes David Carrick as 'a prolific serial sex offender who abused his position as a police officer.'

She adds: 'He's had a devastating impact on the trust of women and girls – that we are working so hard to earn'.https://t.co/UeOD6EDLu5 pic.twitter.com/BWVRxaM4GX

— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 16, 2023

Carrick, who was part of the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, coerced women into relationships, controlled what they wore and ate, where they slept, isolated them, and called one his “slave”. He met some victims through online dating sites and gained their trust using his role as a police officer.

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Chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Jaswant Narwal, told the BBC: “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.”

Narwal called him “a man who relentlessly degraded, belittled and sexually assaulted and raped women”, saying: “As time went on, the severity of his offending intensified as he became emboldened, thinking he would get away with it.”

She called the “scale of the degradation Carrick subjected his victims to” as being “unlike anything I’ve encountered in my 34 years with the Crown Prosecution Service”.

Shilpa Shah, senior crown prosecutor at the CPS, told SWNS: “This is a harrowing case where some victims were relentlessly manipulated; financially cut off and isolated from their friends and family and repeatedly humiliated. Carrick took so much from them both physically and mentally.”

Shah called Carrick “persuasive but also incredibly manipulative”, saying: He told the victims from the start that he was a police officer and suggested to them that it would be their word against his, a concern that a lot of victims have.

“This makes the reporting of these matters all the most courageous, as these women were going up against a police officer who controlled them. Any report of rape is courageous, but considering the extent of the emotional and physical abuse Carrick inflicted on his victims, it took so much strength for them to come forward and we are grateful to them for giving us the evidence needed to prosecute him.”

Carrick pleaded guilty today to four counts of rape, false imprisonment and indecent assault, relating to a 40-year-old woman in 2003, after already having pleaded guilty to 43 charges (including 20 counts of rape) in December, which can now be reported.

He admitted to raping nine women, many in attacks involving violence.

Carrick was suspended from duty after his arrest in October 2021, and following his first guilty pleas the Met stopped his pay. The Met also began an accelerated formal misconduct process, and a hearing is due tomorrow.

If you or someone you know has been affected by this story contact Refuge on their free 24/7 helpline 0808 2000 247 or contact Rape Crisis online for a free confidential chat helpline.

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• ‘I am so fearful’: Young women outside Old Bailey as Couzens given whole-life sentence

• Plain-clothes officers in bars and clubs will do nothing to make women feel safer

Featured image via SWNS