A serving Metropolitan Police officer has pleaded guilty to a string of sexual offences including 24 rape charges.
PC David Carrick – who was known to his colleagues as “B*****d Dave” – entered guilty pleas when he appeared at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Monday.
The 48-year-old was charged with 49 offences against 12 women over a period spanning 18 years.
They included the rape of nine different women, but some of the charges are multiple incident counts, meaning they relate to more than 80 sexual offences, including at least 48 rapes.
Carrick served with the army before he joined the Met Police in August 2001 and worked with the force’s parliamentary and diplomatic command from 2009.
The armed officer’s role included policing parliamentary, government and diplomatic premises.
He was only suspended after a second rape complaint was made against him in October 2021.
Carrick met some of his victims through online dating sites, such as Tinder and Badoo, or on social occasions – and used his position as a police officer to gain their trust.
He admitted raping women on multiple occasions over months or years, with many of those attacks involving violence that would have left them physically injured.
Officer whipped and urinated on victims
Some victims were locked in a small cupboard under the stairs in his Hertfordshire home for hours without food or forced to clean his house naked.
Carrick whipped one woman with a belt, urinated on some of his victims, and told them when they could eat and sleep.
He called women “fat and lazy” or his “slave” as he controlled them financially, isolated them from friends and family, and forbade them from speaking with other men or even their own children.
Carrick denied a further count of rape relating to a 13th woman, whose allegation triggered the investigation, and the Crown Prosecution Service decided it was not in the public interest to proceed to trial on the charge.
The court heard that over drinks in a pub in September 2020, Carrick told her he was a firearms officer nicknamed “B*****d Dave”, showed her his warrant card and boasted of meeting famous people, including then-prime minister Boris Johnson, in the course of his work.
Victims ‘intimidated and humiliated’
Detective Chief Inspector Iain Moor, the senior investigating officer, said Carrick “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”.
“The coercive nature of his offending undermined his victims in the most destructive way,” he added.
Mr Moor described the false imprisonment charges as “shocking”, adding: “Carrick forced his victims into a small under-stairs cupboard at his home address where they stayed intimidated and humiliated until he chose when they could come out. I have seen bigger dog crates.
“It is unbelievable to think these offences could have been committed by a serving police officer.
“The offending was absolutely abhorrent and I’m disgusted by it.”
Met Police knew of previous allegations
Following his guilty pleas, the Met Police confirmed Carrick “had come to the attention of the Met and other forces on nine occasions prior to October 2021” but had not been charged over those allegations against him.
They included allegations of rape, domestic violence, and harassment between 2000 and 2021.
Carrick, from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, was also the subject of five complaints from the public while serving with the Met Police, the force said.
The Met said Carrick was vetted in 2001 and again in 2017, and passed on both occasions.
Met Police ‘truly sorry’
Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray, the Met’s lead for professionalism, said Carrick’s offending was “unprecedented in policing” and apologised to his victims for failing to remove him from the force.
“We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behaviour and because we didn’t, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organisation,” she said.
“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 misconduct hearing is due to be heard in Carrick’s absence on Tuesday.
‘One of most shocking cases’
Senior crown prosecutor Shilpa Shah said the degradation Carrick caused his victims was unlike anything she had seen in her career.
“This is one of the most shocking cases the Crown Prosecution Service has dealt with involving a serving police officer,” she said.
“Carrick held a role where he was trusted with the responsibility of protecting the public, yet over 17 years in his private life he did the exact opposite.
“Carrick held a role where he was trusted with the responsibility of protecting the public, yet over 17 years in his private life he did the exact opposite.
“This is a man who relentlessly degraded, belittled, sexually assaulted and raped women.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan said he was “absolutely sickened by the truly abhorrent offences that David Carrick has committed”.
“Serious questions must be answered about how he was able to abuse his position as an officer,” he added.
Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she will sentence Carrick over two days from 6 February.
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