London police officer admits series of rapes and other sex crimes

London’s Metropolitan Police missed “numerous opportunities” over many years to remove an officer from the force who has admitted multiple charges of rape and other sexual offences.

Appearing in Southwark Crown Court on Monday, David Carrick, 48, an officer who served with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, entered guilty pleas to charges of false imprisonment, indecent assault and four counts of rape. This was on top of 43 other offences, including 20 of rape, that he entered guilty pleas to at the Old Bailey in December.

The case has focused fresh attention on the Met’s prolonged failure to tackle offenders in its serving ranks and has provoked outrage from the public and across Westminster.

UK home secretary Suella Braverman said: “This appalling incident represents a breach of trust. It will affect people’s confidence in the police and it’s clear standards and cultures need to change.”

Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary, said Carrick should never have been in the police in the first place. Moreover, she said the failure to suspend him permanently from active duty after he was first investigated for rape showed little had been learned since the murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021 by a serving officer.

“This is a truly shocking and appalling case with the most devastating rapes, sexual and violent crimes committed against women by a serving officer,” Cooper said.

“It is further evidence of the appalling failures in the police vetting and misconduct processes, still not addressed by government,” she added.

Carrick’s offences spanned from 2003 to 2020 and mostly took place in Hertfordshire, where he lived.

Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, said he was working with the Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to ensure the force is more effective at removing officers whose conduct is “demonstrably criminal”.

“Londoners will be rightly shocked that this man was able to work for the Met for so long and serious questions must be answered about how he was able to abuse his position as an officer in this horrendous manner,” Khan said.

Rowley apologised to Carrick’s many victims, saying: “We have failed. And I’m sorry. He should not have been a police officer,” he said in a statement. “We haven’t applied the same sense of ruthlessness to guarding our own integrity that we routinely apply to confronting criminals.”

He added he was taking action against “those who corrupt our force”. “From my first day four months ago, I said that the Met will become ruthless at rooting out those who corrupt our integrity,” he said.

The Met initiated a review of Carrick’s service, conduct and complaints record after he was charged with rape in October 2021, which established that he had been on police systems in relation to numerous off-duty incidents both before and after he was hired.

None of the incidents resulted in criminal sanctions against him but they included allegations of harassment, domestic assault, malicious communications and burglary.

The Met’s failure to spot a pattern in these allegations are reminiscent of similar omissions in the case of Wayne Couzens, the former officer who was jailed for life in September 2021 for the murder of Everard.

In response to last year’s review into misconduct at the UK’s leading police force by Baroness Louise Casey, the Met said it had invested millions of pounds and brought in more than 400 additional officers to investigate offenders.

The Met said it was confident Carrick’s behaviour would have been singled out by new and more robust vetting procedures in place.

Casey said less than 1 per cent of officers facing multiple allegations of serious offences — including corruption, sexual assault and domestic violence — had been dismissed.