David Carrick: Metropolitan Police sack serial rapist police officeron January 17, 2023 at 11:45 am

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 hearing 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.

He 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.

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.

This is a breaking news story. More will follow shortly.

Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

If you are reading this page and can’t see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk