‘I encountered evil’: Women raped by ex-police David Carrick tell court of impact on their lives

Serial rapist police officer David Carrick has had his sentencing at Southwark Crown Court today after pleading guilty to a string of violent offences, including 24 counts of rape against 12 women over an 18 year period.

Carrick is one of the worst sex offenders in modern British history and used his position of power as a police officer to commit violence against women. His victims were left depressed, suicidal, and feared the police after he assaulted them.

One victim said she “encountered evil” the night Carrick raped her. “I thought he was going to kill me that night,” she said, adding she felt “dirty” and “sick” and “kept seeing the gun” he’d pointed at her, adding she “no longer felt safe around police.”

Another woman Carrick had sexually assaulted said: “I was too scared to go to the police because he told me he was the police. He was the law. I was terrified of making myself a target so I remained silent. I didn’t want to venture outside or talk to anyone…I felt so dirty. So ashamed. My self esteem was in tatters…Every time I see a police car I freeze and hold my breath.”

Detectives will continue investigating the police officer after his sentencing as they worry there are more victims yet to come forwards.

This is a live story and will be updated from inside the courtroom.

Follow below for sentencing updates from our live blog as The Tab’s Senior Features writer Lydia Spencer-Elliott reports from inside the court. 

11.24 – ‘It did not matter who the victim was – he would rape them’ 

Prosecution lawyer Tom Little KC called Carrick’s crimes “a systematic catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences perpetrated on multiple victims, whether he was in a controlling or coercive relationship with them or not.” 

“The reality was that it did not matter who the victim was – she could be a new girlfriend, a long-term partner, a Police officer that he worked with or that he did not work with, a friend from a local Sports club, his cleaner, a school-friend or a stranger – he would rape them, sexually abuse/assault them and/or humiliate them.” 

“He frequently relied on his charm to beguile and mislead the victims in the first place and would then use his power and control, in part because of what he did for a living, to stop them leaving or consider reporting him.”

Carrick, who is in the dock dressed in a suit and looking down at the floor, has pled guilty to 71 instanced of sexual assault, which are:

– 5 vaginal rapes

– 24 anal rapes

– 19 oral rapes

– 1 indecent assault

– 2 attempted rapes

– 2 assaults by penetration of the vagina

– 3 assaults by penetration of the vagina

– 1 attempted assault penetration of the anus with his fist

– 1 causing sexual activity without consent (requiring a victim to lick his anus)

– 12 sexual assaults involving him urinating in the mouth of the victim or over her

– 1 sexual assault with a belt

12.00 – Carrick told victim he was a police officer and threatened her with a gun 

The court hears how when Carrick was 28 he falsely imprisoned, assaulted and raped a 20-year-old woman numerous times in one evening after they met at a London bar and he invited her back to his nearby flat for a “housewarming party” in July 2003. 

The woman had been out with a group of close friends and Carrick told her he was the “safest person to be with because he was a police officer” and asked her to come back with him and help tidy up before the party. 

Back at his flat, Carrick gave the woman brandy and coke to drink and asked her to sit beside him. When she said no, he got up and tried to kiss her. She said no again and that she wasn’t interested. When she attempted to leave, the door was locked. 

Carrick then grabbed the woman by her hair, threw her on the bed and held her down. She bit his arm in a bid to escape but he pulled out a black handgun, put it to her head and told her “you are not going” before raping her vaginally, anally and orally until it got light outside.

The policeman eventually freed the 20-year-old from his flat because he “had to work”. Before she left, Carrick forcibly kissed the woman, told her to call him, and “ stood naked and waved to her as if nothing had happened.” 

12:09 – Carrick assaulted police woman who worked with him 

The second statement comes from a woman who worked with Carrick as a police officer in 2004. They flirted at work. She was “flattered” and when he suggested she stay over at his flat after they’d worked overtime, she said yes and expected to have consensual vaginal sex. 

Back at Carrick’s flat, he immediately told her to get on her hands and knees without foreplay. He started to penetrate her anally and when she said “no that’s the wrong hole” he carried on even though she said it hurt. He told  her “this is what I do”. 

The woman didn’t report the assault until 2021 because she was ashamed. “I wasn’t going to put myself through it which is hypercritical because I would encourage a rape victim to do it but not brave enough to do it myself,” she said. “I just didn’t talk about it to anybody.” 

12:12 – Carrick’s brandished a knife at victim when she tried to leave 

In 2005, Carrick got a 21-year-old girlfriend who he’d met while she was working as a barmaid. He was her first sexual partner. Things got serious and they moved in together. 

While they were at a friend’s wedding, Carrick sexually assaulted his girlfriend and although she was shocked, attributed the incident to the amount of alcohol he’d drunk. But as the relationship continued Carrick performed vaginal and anal sex without consent. 

Carrick’s girlfriend didn’t report the incidents at the time “because she thought she would not be believed”. When she attempted to leave him and move in with colleagues, Carrick “brandished a knife at her and slashed her work shirts”.

12:17 – Carrick’s victims didn’t report his crimes because he was a police officer 

In 2009, Carrick went on a night out with friend’s from his sports club. One woman was crying about her previous relationship and he said they should leave, she shouldn’t be alone, and to stay in his spare room. 

Back at his flat, Carrick got naked while the woman was in the bathroom. When she came back, he lifted her up, threw her on the bed, and put his fingers inside her. The woman thought that “if she let it happen, then she would not get hurt”. 

She never reported the incident because “as he was a Police officer she doubted anyone would do anything”.

12:25 – Victim tried to ‘wriggle away’ from Carrick 

The court hears how Carrick’s fifth victim got in a taxi, which she thought was to her own house but was actually back to Carrick’s. Before going to sleep, Carrick put his arms behind her back so she couldn’t move. “[She] tried to wiggle away, but she could not. The defendant tried to kiss her and whispered in her ear that this would be their little secret.”

“[Carrick] then used his fingers to penetrate her vagina. She told the defendant to stop and tried to close her legs and wriggle away, but she could not do so with his weight on her.

“He then penetrated her anus with his finger. Again she tried to stop it from happening by putting as much pressure on the bed as possible, but could not stop him. The defendant then moved his penis towards her. It was flaccid and he was masturbating himself. He tried to put his penis into her vagina but was unable to do so. She stated that she pretended she enjoyed it, so she could get out of the bed quicker but ended up sleeping in the bed.”

12:36 – ‘He would pay her £1,000 a month to be his slut’

Carrick met another of his victim’s on Tinder and was later in a “coercive relationship” with her for six months. He asked her to move in with him and said he’d pay her £1,000 a month to be his “sl*t”. She said no but eventually moved in with him and their sex life got progressively more aggressive. 

He would ask his girlfriend “who do you belong to?” and, on one instance after she had had a haemorrhoid operation, forced her to have anal sex.

The woman was left feeling “suicidal” after months of sexual abuse and living under coercive control. Carrick told her what she could and couldn’t eat and forced her to perform oral sex on him while her daughter could hear from the next room. He cut her off from her friend and watched her every move using cameras he’d installed in the house.

12:49 – Carrick locked victim in cupboard for online shopping

Another of Carrick’s victims who was in a relationship with him for almost three years was subject to extensive abuse and coercive control. He told her what to wear, called her his “whore” and “prostitute” and, on one occasion, locked her in a small cupboard because she ordered a jumper online and started “whistling at her as if she was a dog”.

On another occasion, Carrick “threatened her with his Police baton and sent her a photograph of his work issue firearm” saying “remember I am the boss”.  He also controlled what she ate in restaurants and called her “fat” and “lazy”.

12:50 – Carrick raped victim while her parents were in tent next door

The court hears how Carrick raped the victim while they were on a camping trip with her parents. The woman refused to have anal sex because her parents would hear from the tent next door but he got on top of her anyway. The woman’s dad came out and asked if she was okay. But Carrick covered the victim’s mouth and asked “What would your dad think of me f***ing you up the a***?”

12:51 – Carrick forced oral sex while he had an STD

Carrick is still looking down and showing no reaction as the court hears he forced the woman to perform oral sex even though he had an STD with blisters on his penis. “She had to perform oral sex once or twice a day and sometimes more. Even if she did not want to, he would just push her neck down,” the prosecution said. 

“He always ejaculated in her mouth when raping her orally and she was never allowed to spit it out.”

Carrick “aggressively” used a whip on the victim and if she upset him would be “punished” with it. This was one of many sex toys Carrick kept in drawers by their bed, including nipple clamps and the whip, which had beads attached to it.

When the victim left Carrick, she took the whip so he wouldn’t be able to use it on anybody and gave it to the police as evidence.

12:58 – Woman ‘could not move’ during the attack

The court hears how Carrick’s tenth victim “could not move” while he attacked her because and “kept trying to push him and he kept pushing her hands back”. The woman had been working as his cleaner when he started to make advances and call her is “slave”. One day when she was cleaning his shower, he came towards her naked and put his penis in her mouth so forcefully she couldn’t breathe. “He ejaculated in her mouth: she was sick,” the prosecution said.

Carrick then told the victim “practice on a banana you will be better next time”. But the woman left the house and never went back.

The sentencing has now adjourned for lunch and will return at around 2pm.

14:04 – Carrick’s victims were ‘vulnerable’ and ‘trusting’

The sentencing has resumed after lunch and the court is hearing of Carrick’s 11th victim who cleaned his house after meeting him on a dating app.  According to the woman’s friends she was “vulnerable” and that becase she was “trusting” men find her to be “easy prey”.

14:07 – Victims vomiting turned Carrick on

Carrick raped the woman at least three times. “On two of those occasions in his house he put his penis so far down her throat that she could not breathe. She was sick and had to swallow her own vomit. This turned the defendant on,” the prosecution said.

The policeman also urinated in the victim’s mouth. “She ran to the bathroom and spat it out, she made it plain she did not like it and he responded, ‘you love it’ and laughed at her,” Tom Little KC said. “There was a second occasion in the bedroom, and she spat the urine onto the floor. She told him it was sick, but he did not care.”

14:12 – Carrick gave rape victim ‘I love anal’ T-shirt

The only victim who has waived their anonymity, Darcianne Nunes Da Silva, was in a relationship with Carrick for five months after meeting her on a dating app. After moving into Carrick’s house, the relationship deteriorated quickly and Carrick began anally raping Da Silva despite her repeatedly telling him she didn’t like it.

“There were many occasions where anal sex was without her consent,” the prosecution said. “On each occasion she made it clear that she 27 did not want to do it. Despite that the defendant gave her a T-shirt that said “I love anal”.

Carrick threatened to report Da Silva to immigration services if she broke up with him and once threw all of her belongings out of his house.

14:18 – Carrick’s internet history reveals horrifying pornographic material

The prosecution called Carrick’s internet search history “instructive”. Videos on his computer included footage of “painful anal” and “reluctant teen” anal videos as well as anal orgies.

14:19 – ‘I kept seeing the gun he’d pointed at me’

The court is now hearing the victims’ impact statements. Victim one said she knew she’d “encountered evil” the night she met Carrick. “I thought he was going to kill me that night,” she said, adding she felt “dirty” and “sick” and “kept seeing the gun he’d pointed at me…I no longer felt safe around police.”

“I saw his picture in the media and froze as the memories came flooding back. In May 2022, when more charged has ben made i decided it was time to face him. I had forgotten what had happened to me but pushed it to the back of my mind. It has been with me in every relationship I have been in. I felt I wanted to be invisible and just disappear. I feel I have lost out on 19 years of my life.”

14:32 – ‘I took a kitchen knife and tried to slice my wrist’

Another of Carrick’s victims says she lost considerable amounts of weight after her attack and lived off “adrenaline” and “nicotine”. “I smoked more than I ever had and I began to binge drink,” she said. “I began to read erotic fiction and write pornographic stories and send them to men. I left myself vulnerable to abuse. I started relationships I didn’t want. I felt the only way people would like me is if I had sexual relationships.”

“I took a kitchen knife and tried to slice my wrist. I realised I was at rock bottom,” she continued. “After the knife left no marks I just gave up.”

14:43 – ‘I thought about hanging myself’

One woman says Carrick has had an impact on her life, family and friends. “I’m not the same person I was when I met him,” she says. He made me feel like his one and only princess. He really invested time in getting to know me. His attention and interest made me feel loved, safe, and secure. One moment I was the light of his life. Next minute I was a piece of dirt on his shoe. He was eliminating my support network slowly but surely.”

The woman described how Carrick controlled her diet and medications, making her “weaker” so she could not defend herself. “I actually thought I might die,” she said. “He made me feel like I had no one. I was so low and depressed I thought about hanging myself.”

14:48 – Carrick shows no signs of emotion as victims’ statements read

As the prosecution read out the details of how drastically Carrick impacted each of his victim’s lives, with many wanting to die after he raped and manipulated them, the former Met Police officer looks directly at the floor showing absolutely no signs of emotion at the harrowing accounts of PTSD and depression that his victims suffered.

14:53 – ‘I was too scared to go to the police. He was the law’

Another of Carrick’s victims says: “What happened to me broke me. Never have I felt so isolated and alone. I was told consistently I was a whore and a slut. My [teenage] daughters were also sluts. I was instructed to walk behind. I was whipped, urinated on, made to sleep naked on the floor. I was strangled, kicked, text messages saying he wished I was dead.

I was too scared to go to the police because he told me he was the police. He was the law. I was terrified of making myself a target so I remained silent. I didn’t want to venture outside or talk to anyone…I felt so dirty. So ashamed. My self esteem was in tatters.”

“Every time I see a police car I freeze and hold my breath,” she adds. “The only feeling I have for the defendant is immense pity.”

14:56 – ‘No sentence is enough for what he did’

After Carrick sexually assaulted her, one woman has said she feels physically sick if she smells the aftershave he used to wear and added the incident has completely destroyed her trust in the police.

“The thought of being alone with a male officer makes me very anxious,” she says. “I don’t think I could ever trust a male again because of what Dave did to me. It’s really tainted my opinion of men. I don’t think any sentence could be enough for what he did.”

15:00 – ‘My eyes are full of tears’

‘I don’t like myself. I feel ugly and sad,” the prosecution reads out from Carrick’s 11th victim’s opening statement. “I’m a nice person inside and I did not deserve all of this. My eyes are full of tears. All I want to do is cry my eyes out and I don’t trust anyone anymore. All I want to do is stay home and shut myself in because I know I’ll be safe.

“I used to be a happy person but because of what happened that’s been taken away from me.”

15.10 – Prosecutor says Carrick should get a life sentence

Prosecutor Tom Little KC is arguing that Carrick should face a life sentence as he poses “significant risk of serious harm to the public.”

“This offending was extremely serious,” he adds, referencing just how many years Carrick committed his crimes for. Although Little acknowledges whole life sentences are rarely imposed in a case that’s not a homicide he calls Carrick’s offences “criminality of the upmost seriousness… this case falls short of meriting a whole-life sentence”.

Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, who will decide Carrick’s sentence, then calls for a brief break.

15:28 – ‘A life sentence is the only sentence’

Carrick’s counsel, Mr Alisdair Williamson says “A life sentence is the only sentence that will reach justice. A minimum term will bring him close to the end of his life. He cannot ask for mercy and does not.”

Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb will sentence Carrick at 10.30AM tomorrow morning.

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.

Related articles recommended by this author:

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

• Flag down a bus, and all the other tone-deaf ‘advice’ the Met Police is giving women

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