Met Police rapist who locked victims in tiny cupboard finally jailed after years of offending

A serving Metropolitan Police officer has been revealed as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders after admitting attacking a dozen women over an 18-year period. The actions of PC David Carrick have been described as ‘callous’ after he admitted 49 offences, including 24 counts of rape, against 12 women between 2003 and 2020.

He even whipped one woman with a belt, locked others in cupboards, urinated on some of his victims and told them when they could eat and sleep. The Met Police Force has apologised to his victims after it emerged that he had come to the attention of police over nine incidents including allegations of rape, domestic violence and harassment between 2000 and 2021.

The 48-year-old, who joined the Met in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in 2009, faced no criminal sanctions or misconduct findings. He was only suspended after being arrested over a second rape complaint in October 2021 – though the full picture can still not be reported for legal reasons.

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But Carrick appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Monday to plead guilty to four counts of rape, false imprisonment and indecent assault relating to a 40-year-old woman in 2003. At the Old Bailey in December, Carrick, who served in the Army before joining the Met, admitted 43 charges against 11 other women, including 20 counts of rape, between March 2004 and September 2020.

He denied a further count of rape in September 2020 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. Over drinks in a pub on September 4 2020, Carrick told her he was a firearms officer nicknamed “B****** Dave”, showed her his warrant card and boasted of meeting famous people, including then-prime minister Boris Johnson, in the course of his work, a court previously heard.

Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick who has pleaded guilty to 49 offences, including 24 counts of rape, against 12 women between 2003 and 2020 (Image: PA Media)

In total, Carrick, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to 49 offences relating to 12 women between 2003 and 2020 and they are:

They include 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. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she will sentence Carrick over two days from February 6.

‘He thrived on humiliating his victims’

Detective Chief Inspector Iain Moor, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said the “sheer number of offences” show Carrick’s “prolific and callous nature” and he expects more victims to come forward. Carrick met some of the women through online dating sites such as Tinder and Badoo or on social occasions, using his position as a police officer to gain their trust.

“Whilst 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. The coercive nature of his offending undermined his victims in the most destructive way,” Mr Moor said.

Some of the women were raped on multiple occasions over months or years, with many of those attacks involving violence that would have left them injured. Victims were locked in a small cupboard under the stairs in Carrick’s 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 banned them from speaking with other men or their own children.

Metropolitan police officer David Carrick, appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, London (Image: Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire/PA Images)

“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,” Mr Moor said. “The coercive nature of his offending undermined his victims in the most destructive way.”

The officer described the false imprisonment charges as “shocking”, adding: “Carrick forced his victim into a small under-stairs cupboard at his home, 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,” he said. “The offending was absolutely abhorrent and I’m disgusted by it. I have a lot of pride and respect in the police service and I’m proud to be a policeman.

“When something like this happens, it obviously places a big cloud over the service as a whole. But I’m hoping that as a result of the thorough investigation that we’ve done and the fact that he’s been brought to justice will hopefully give people the confidence to be able to report matters to the police.”

Offending was ‘unprecedented in policing’

Carrick’s case will plunge the Met into a fresh crisis, coming after a string of damaging scandals, and is a major setback in Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley’s attempts to clean up the force’s reputation. Dame Louise Casey, who is already carrying out a review of the culture in the Met, called for a full inquiry into the Carrick case and said she would volunteer to carry out the work herself if necessary.

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 root him out of 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.

Downing Street described Carrick’s crimes as “appalling” and the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Police forces must root out these officers to restore the public’s trust, which has been shattered by high-profile events such as this.” Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the case “is further evidence of appalling failures in the police vetting and misconduct processes, still not addressed by Government, that he was ever able to serve as a police officer”.

“Everyone who demanded change will feel badly let down today,” she said. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan added: “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.”

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