‘Self-pitying’ Met rapist David Carrick tried to kill himself in jail judge reveals as he’s caged for ‘monstrous’ crimes
A “SELF-pitying” Met Police rapist tried killing himself in prison after he raped multiple women in a 17-year reign of terror.
David Carrick, 48, tortured his victims as he abused his position in the police to “charm and beguile” them.
The monster locked women naked in a cupboard under the stairs for ten hours at a time, controlled what they ate and branded them his “slaves”.
He was revealed as one of the UK’s worst serial rapists last month after admitting 49 charges – including 24 counts of rape.
Some of the multiple-incident counts relate to at least 85 separate offences -including at least 71 sexual offences and 48 rapes.
Shockingly, it also emerged Carrick came to police attention nine times before his arrest after rape and domestic violence allegations were made against him.
He has now been handed 36 life sentences with a minimum term of 30 years and 239 days after the gruesome extent of his sick crimes were revealed for the first time.
At his two-day sentencing hearing, the court was told Carrick attempted to kill himself while on remand at Belmarsh.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said this was a “self-pitying reaction to the shame brought on you by these proceedings rather than remorse”.
The judge branded the serial predator a “grave danger” to women but said the crimes did not meet the threshold for a whole life tariff that would see him die in jail.
She also said the women involved were not “weak or ineffectual” but instead “victims of your criminal mindset”.
The judge added: “These convictions represent a spectacular downfall for a man charged with upholding the law and empowered to do so even to the extent of being authorised to bear a firearm in the execution of his duty.
“Behind a public appearance of propriety and trustworthiness, you took monstrous advantage of women drawn into intimate relationships with you.
“You brazenly raped and sexually assaulted a number of women, some very brutally, 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.
“For nearly two decades, you were proved right but now a combination of those 12 women, by coming forward, and your police colleagues, by acting on their evidence, have exposed you and brought you low.
“You have lost your liberty, your job and your status. You have before you the prospect of a difficult time in custody for many years.”
Southwark Crown Court was told Carrick would “often humiliate his victims in a number of different ways”.
He used his police baton and handcuffs during attacks and sent one victim a photo with a work-issue handgun, saying: “Remember I am the boss”.
Two women were kept in the tiny cupboard under his stairs while others were urinated on or hit with a belt.
He put his hands around one victim’s throat and told her he was “going to be the last thing she saw” and wielded a knife at another.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC said he invited one woman back to his home after claiming he was the “safest person that she could be with and that he was a police officer”.
Once there, he told her “she couldn’t go” and “grabbed her by the hair and put his hand round her mouth, dragging her backwards”.
The prosecutor said: “He threw her on the bed. He held her down. He grabbed her arms. He had taken his shirt off. She bit his arm and he put his hand behind the bed.
“He searched for something and then put a black handgun to her head and said to her ‘you are not going’.
“She froze”.
Carrick also attacked another as she sat on the toilet after developing a sick interest in “urination for sexual gratification”.
And he offered a victim he raped five times £1,000-a-month to be his “s**t” as he coercively controlled her.
She recalled how in one attack, she was “sweating from the pain and crying”.
The woman was left feeling suicidal and dropped from a size 14 to a six after Carrick controlled how much she ate.
In another chilling encounter, he stood naked and waved goodbye to a victim he raped “as if nothing had happened”.
Controlling Carrick also told a victim she “belonged to him and that she must obey him” – including with the clothes she wore and what she spent money on.
He threatened the woman with a police baton and “punished” her by shutting her in the cupboard under the stairs.
She told how she would scream out in pain while being repeatedly raped by Carrick but didn’t tell anyone as the fiend was a “police officer and very powerful”.
Describing Carrick’s 17-year reign of terror, Mr Little KC said: “If the offending had to be accurately and fairly summarised, it was systematic.
“It was catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences perpetrated on multiple victims, whether he was in a controlling or coercive relationship with them or not, or even if it was just a single occasion.
“The reality was that it did not matter who the victim was, the reality was, if he had the opportunity, he would rape them, sexually abuse or assault them and humiliate them.
“Some of his victims were either appreciably older or younger than him – they were all, in their own ways, vulnerable.”
Carrick worked for the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command unit – the same department as Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens.
It is not clear if the pair knew each other while working at the elite unit at the same time.
The gun cop, whose colleagues branded him “B*****d Dave”, met some of his victims on dating apps such as Tinder and Badoo.
He would flash his warrant card to lure the women into a false sense of security and told them: “I’m a police officer, you can trust me”.
The monster also boasted about meeting the Prime Minister in his role guarding parliamentary, government and diplomatic buildings.
Evil Carrick would appear charming at first before spending time “developing relationships to sustain his appetite for degradation and control”.
He forced women to clean his home naked, carried out degrading acts against them, cut them off from family including their children and whipped them with belts.
One victim was forced into a tiny cupboard smaller than a dog crate, while others were forced to perform sex acts until they “fought for breath”.
Carrick also controlled how much they ate and when they slept, telling them: “You’re only allowed to eat this much of an apple today”.
The monster would abuse his position in the police to terrify his victims into silence.
The women ranged from a school pal to a previous abuse victim, with some abused at the home in Stevenage he shared with his pet snake.
Another victim claimed she was attacked after she woke up naked and covered in a sick in a hotel following drinks with Carrick in St Albans.
Carrick allegedly raped her while calling himself a “dominant b*****d”.
She came forward after seeing another case of a rapist police officer, but the offence against her has been left to lie on the court file.
When officers swooped on his home, Carrick told them “not again” before giving a “no comment” interview.
A sweep of his electronic devices showed chilling searches for pornography including words such as “extreme” and “painful”.
Carrick was described as “very persuasive but also manipulative” to the point of being “cocky”.
He first served in the Military before becoming a Met Police officer from August 2001.
Eight years later, a domestic abuse complaint was made against him but no further action was taken.
The woman who made the allegation is one of the 12 victims.
In 2019, Carrick was accused of assault and criminal damage but again, no action was taken.
He was also cleared to return to work just weeks after first being accused of rape.
The predator was not even subjected to a fresh round of vetting as a result of the July 2021 rape allegation.
And he passed vetting back in 2001 despite being accused of burglary and malicious communications when a relationship ended.
The Met has now referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and apologised for not stopping him sooner.
The fiend was sacked last month with all forces now checking their officers against national police databases.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman described his crimes as a “scar on our police”, adding: “It is vital we uncover how he was able to wear the uniform for so long.”
Timeline of terror - how the Met missed chances to stop Carrick
- 2000: Carrick is a suspect in two offences reported to the Met involving allegations of malicious communications and burglary against a former partner, after he refused to accept the end of their relationship. He is not arrested and no further action is taken.
- August 2001: Carrick joins the Met. After training he works as a response officer based in Merton, south-west London.
- 2002: While still in his two-year probationary period, Carrick is accused of harassment and assault against a former partner. He is not arrested by the Met and no further action is taken. The matter is not referred to the Directorate of Professional Standards.
- 2002: Carrick is subject of the first of five public complaints made between 2002 and 2008. Two allegations he had been rude were dealt with by management action locally, while three relating to incivility and use of force were withdrawn or dismissed.
- 2003: His first known victim is repeatedly raped.
- 2004: Carrick is involved in a domestic incident but no criminal allegations are made to the Met, he is not arrested and the matter is not referred to the Directorate of Professional Standards.
- 2009: Carrick is transferred to what is now the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, where his role involves providing an armed policing presence at parliamentary, government and diplomatic premises.
- 2009: Hertfordshire Police receive a domestic abuse report from a third party involving Carrick but neither party make a complaint and no charge is brought. Hertfordshire Police inform Met supervisors.
- 2016: Carrick is a suspect in a Hampshire Police investigation following an allegation of harassment. He is not arrested and the investigation is later closed.
- 2017: Carrick should have been vetted after 10 years of service but is only now re-vetted and passes.
- 2017: Carrick is spoken to by Thames Valley Police officers after he is thrown out of a Reading nightclub for being drunk. He is not arrested and the matter is not referred to the Met.
- 2019: Hertfordshire Police receive a third party report of assault and criminal damage involving an argument between Carrick and a woman during a domestic incident. Neither party are supportive of police involvement and no further action is taken after the case is looked at by the domestic abuse unit.
- July 2021: A woman reports being raped by Carrick. He is arrested by Hertfordshire Police over the allegation but no further action is taken after she withdraws the complaint. The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards is made aware and Carrick is placed on restricted duties. It is determined he has no case to answer in relation to any misconduct and in September the restriction is lifted, although he never returns to full duties.
- October 1 2021: A 50-year-old woman reports she was raped by Carrick in September 2020. He is arrested, charged and suspended by the Met.
In total, Carrick pleaded guilty to 49 offences against 12 women including 24 rapes between 2003 and 2020.
He also admitted nine counts of sexual assault, three charges of coercive and controlling behaviour, two attempted rape, one count of indecent assault and three of false imprisonment.
Carrick further pleaded guilty to five counts of assault by penetration, one count of attempted sexual assault by penetration and one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.
He denied a count of rape in September 2020 relating to a 13th woman but the CPS decided it was not in the public interest to proceed to trial on that charge.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said today: “David Carrick’s crimes were unspeakably evil. The detail is harrowing.
“He subjected these victims and survivors to the most degrading and inhumane treatment and yet they still showed the courage to come forward and to provide the evidence that led to his conviction.
“He exploited his position as a police officer in the most disgusting way. He should not have been a police officer.
“We weren’t rigorous enough in our approach and as a result we missed opportunities to identify the warning signs over decades. I want to again reiterate my apology on behalf of the Met. We are truly sorry.
“I recognise that as a result of this case and other prominent recent cases, there are women whose trust in the police is profoundly shaken.
“I and tens of thousands of officers and staff in the Met are horrified by this man’s crimes and recognise this will shake Londoners trust too.
“We have let down women across London but we are more determined than ever to put it right.”