UK police officer David Carrick jailed for life for sex attacks

Serial rapist handed 36 life sentences with a minimum term of 32 years

Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Pc David Carrick (right) appearing at Southwark Crown Court in London for sentencing. PA.

Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick will serve at least 30 years behind bars for attacking a dozen women over a 17-year period.

In a two-day sentencing hearing, Southwark Crown Court heard how the 48-year-old used his power and control to carry out a “catalogue of violent and brutal” sex attacks between 2003 and 2020.

Carrick, who joined the Met in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in 2009, used his position to gain the women’s trust and scare them into silence.

He held a handgun to the head of one of his victims and sent another a photograph of himself with a work-issue firearm, saying: “Remember I am the boss.”

In a televised sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, Carrick was handed 36 life sentences, with a minimum term of 32 years – minus his time spent on remand – after becoming one of the country’s worst ever sex offenders.

He previously pleaded guilty to 49 charges, including 24 counts of rape, but some are multiple-incident counts, meaning they relate to at least 85 separate offences, including at least 71 sexual offences and 48 rapes.

The court also heard how he told another woman he was the “safest person that she could be with and that he was a police officer” before taking her back to his nearby flat to rape her.

Carrick, who was sacked from the force following his conviction, was handed 36 life sentences with a minimum term of 32 years.

The sex predator previously admitted 49 charges, including 24 counts of rape and charges of sexual assault, controlling and coercive behaviour and false imprisonment.

Deducting the number of days he had spent in custody from his minimum term on Tuesday, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the defendant: “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.”

Carrick’s crimes were all carried out while he was a serving police officer.

He passed vetting checks to guard sites including embassies and the Houses of Parliament and completed training courses, including one on domestic abuse in 2005.

The Met was forced to apologise and admit Carrick should have been rooted out earlier after it emerged he came to police attention over nine separate incidents between 2000 and 2021 – and was known to colleagues as “Bastard Dave”.

They included allegations of rape, domestic violence and harassment with all but one of the incidents relating to his behaviour towards women.

Carrick faced no criminal sanctions or misconduct findings and police chiefs across England and Wales have since been asked to have all officers checked against national police databases by the end of March.

He was finally sacked from the force last month after his final guilty pleas and his crimes are set to form part of the independent inquiry looking at the murder of Sarah Everard, who was raped and strangled by then-serving Met officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.

Peter Burt, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Complex Casework Unit in Thames & Chiltern, said: “We’ve heard the accounts of the women who suffered at Carrick’s hands.

“We cannot undo the pain they have endured, but we hope this can be a first step to rebuilding their lives knowing he can’t harm them – or any other woman – again.”