Met missed nine chances to stop rapist hiding under their noses
Force admits failure to take action despite clear pattern of behaviour may have ‘prolonged suffering of victims’
IN JULY 2021, the day after Wayne Couzens admitted kidnapping, raping and murdering Sarah Everard, a woman went into a police station in Sussex to make a complaint about an unrelated matter.
During the course of her interview, she divulged to officers that she too had been raped by a Metropolitan Police officer in the past.
She explained that the attack had taken place at the officer’s home in Stevenage and so the matter was immediately passed to Hertfordshire Constabulary to investigate.
The officer in question was David Carrick, a serving member of the Met’s armed Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection unit, and it was not the first time a complaint about him had been made.
Carrick was arrested on suspicion of rape three days later and questioned at length about the allegation.
Because he was a serving officer, Hertfordshire Constabulary also informed his bosses at Scotland Yard, who had to make a decision about what to do about him.
Given the intense scrutiny the Met was facing over the Couzens disclosures, it would have been understandable for the force to suspend Carrick and take a closer look at his background.
But instead, extraordinarily, Scotland Yard simply placed him on restricted duties and waited to see what the outcome of the criminal investigation was.
When, a few weeks later, the traumatised victim decided to withdraw the complaint as many sex abuse survivors do, the Met determined that Carrick had no disciplinary case to answer and cleared him to return to duties.
But had his Met bosses bothered to look back over Carrick’s record they might have spotted an extremely disturbing pattern of behaviour that meant he had been brought to the attention of the police on eight previous occasions. In 2000, a year before he applied to join the Met, Carrick was investigated on suspicion of burglary and theft.
Following a row with an ex-girlfriend, he broke into her home and stole some perfume and underwear.
The matter was reported to the police but the case was dropped when he agreed to return the items and pay for the damage to her home.
Later that year, there was another report to the police from the same woman who accused Carrick of making malicious phone calls to her. Again, he was not arrested and the matter did not go any further.
His application to join the Met was successful in August 2001 and, in November 2002, while he was still in his probation period, Carrick was accused of actual bodily harm following an attack on a girlfriend who wanted to end their relationship.
She reported the matter to his bosses in Scotland Yard but no action was taken against him.
In 2004, he was involved in another suspected domestic incident during an argument with a girlfriend, but the Met’s department of professional standards did not even look into the matter.
In 2009, he passed enhanced assessments in order to qualify as a firearms officer, but within months of being handed a weapon was accused of domestically abusing a girlfriend.
Hertfordshire Constabulary investigated the matter and spoke to the victim and a third party who had reported the offence, but neither wished to proceed and the case was dropped.
The Met was informed but took no action against Carrick. The victim is one of the 12 women he has now pleaded guilty to attacking.
In 2011, he should have undergone his 10-year vetting refresher but it did not take place for a further six years – a period during which he committed a string of offences.
In 2016, his ex-partner reported him to Hampshire police after becoming convinced he was stalking her by “ghost calling” her at work.
The matter was investigated but was dropped because he was not directly linked to the phone in question.
In 2017, he was spoken to by Thames Valley Police officers after being thrown out of a nightclub in Reading for being drunk and aggressive.
Carrick showed the officers his Met warrant card and rather than being arrested was allowed to go on his way. No action was ever taken against him.
In 2017, he finally underwent an enhanced Counter Terrorist Check (CTC), but no intelligence cross checks took place during the process and he passed.
In 2019, he was again reported to
‘This is an institution in crisis – the fact they failed to take appropriate action when they knew about him shows just how broken the system is’
Hertfordshire police over allegations of assault and criminal damage.
It followed a row with his girlfriend at the time, in which he grabbed around her neck and dragged her out of his house.
Officers from Hertfordshire police spoke to the victim but no further action was taken against Carrick.
Scotland Yard’s department of professional standards was informed and the matter was sent to his own Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection unit to examine.
It was swiftly determined that the matter did not constitute gross misconduct and he was simply offered some words of advice, suggesting in the future he told his bosses about such offduty incidents.
In addition, it has now emerged that Carrick was the subject of five complaints from members of the public during his service.
They were all received between 2002 and 2008 before he joined armed policing.
Two of the complaints related to him being rude to members of the public while the others related to use of force including the use of CS gas.
Fast-forward to July 2021 and his arrest on suspicion of rape, and it is clear the Met’s department for professional standards failed to join the dots.
The apparent blunder by Scotland Yard will now be referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct to decide whether anyone ought to be disciplined. But, as one source said: “It rather smacks of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.”
Acknowledging the failings, Asst Commissioner Barbara Gray, the Met’s lead for professionalism, said: “On behalf of the Metropolitan Police, I want to apologise to the women who have suffered at the hands of David Carrick.”
“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.”
A spokesman for the Met said: “Were these incidents to have occurred today we are more confident that they would have been identified as forming a pattern of behaviour requiring further investigation even in the event that the
individual allegations had been withdrawn.
“Cases where no further action is taken in relation to criminal allegations are now more likely to be further interrogated to identify any underlying concerns.”
Carrick’s offending covers virtually his entire time in the Met, with the first offences taking place in 2003 and the most recent in 2020.
He eventually pleaded guilty to 49 charges against 12 victims covering a total of 85 separate offences.
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, said: “This day is a sobering day for the Metropolitan Police Service, and indeed the whole policing family through out the country.
“This appalling incident represents a breach of trust, it will affect people’s confidence in the police and it is clear that standards and culture need to change in policing.”
Det Ch Insp Iain Moor, of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, who was the senior investigating officer in the case, said the sheer number of offences Carrick had admitted demonstrated his “prolific and callous” nature.
He said: “While he was not a man that stalked the streets scouting for victims, he invested time in developing relationships with women to sustain his appetite for degradation and control.”
Some of his attacks took place within relationships while others were against women he met socially or on online dating sites.
Shilpa Shah, of the Crown Prosecudavid tion Service, said: “He controlled their daily routines, what they ate, where they slept.
“He would say they were fat so they were not allowed to eat that day, or that they could only eat a piece of apple. He would tell them to stay in bed all day because they were going to be having sex all night.”
Mr Moor said: “The coercive nature of his offending undermined his victims in the most destructive way.
“He thrived on humiliating his victims and cleverly used his professional position to intimate there was no point in them trying to seek help because they would never be believed.
“It is unbelievable to think these offences could have been committed by a serving police officer.”
Andrea Simon, director of the End
Violence Against Women Coalition, said: “This is an institution in crisis. That Carrick’s alarming pattern of behaviour was known to the Met, and they failed to take appropriate action, demonstrates just how broken the systems which are supposed to keep the public safe from perpetrators of rape and abuse are.
“Police officers hold a particular position of power and authority over the public and as such must be held to the very highest standards of accountability and public scrutiny. Yet we see an institution that isn’t addressing the most serious sexual offending within its own ranks.
“Even when officers are reported for sexual misconduct they often evade disciplinary action and remain in their jobs.”