London policeman jailed for 32 years after ‘monstrous’ serial rape

A former London police officer was jailed on Tuesday for more than 30 years for an “unrestrained campaign of rape and abuse of women” over nearly two decades in the latest scandal to hit Britain’s biggest police force.

David Carrick, who worked in the Metropolitan Police’s parliamentary and diplomatic protection service, used his position to intimidate victims, saying no one would believe their word against a serving officer, prosecutors said.

One victim told the court that Carrick had threatened her with his baton and also sent him a photograph of his police-issued firearm saying: “Remember, I am the boss.”

“I was too frightened to go to the police to lodge a complaint as Carrick had drilled it into me that ‘he was the police, he was the law and he owned me’. I was convinced the police would not believe me,” she said in a written statement.

The 48-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to 49 charges relating to 12 victims between 2003 and 2020, making him one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.

Carrick’s offences, which included 24 counts of rape, were all committed while in the Met, which is already reeling from other revelations of wrongdoing in recent years.

He appeared at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday as Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb imposed 36 life sentences, with a minimum term of 32 years minus the time he has already served.

“Behind a public appearance of propriety and trustworthiness, you took monstrous advantage of women drawn into intimate relationships with you,” Cheema-Grubb told Carrick who sat impassively in the dock.

“You brazenly raped and sexually assaulted many women … and you behaved as if you were untouchable. You were bold and, at times, relentless, trusting that no victim would overcome her shame and fear to report you.”

Cheema-Grubb said Carrick’s “unrestrained campaign of rape and abuse of women” had caused “irretrievable devastation”.

“These women are not weak or ineffectual,” she added. “They were victims of your criminal mindset. The malign influence of men like you in positions of power stands in the way of a revolution of women’s dignity.”