The mother of the rapist Metropolitan police officer David Carrick has said it is possible he overplayed his childhood trauma to reduce his sentence.
Carrick, 48, pleaded guilty to 85 serious offences including 48 rapes against 12 women. He was given 36 life sentences at Southwark crown court on Tuesday and will spend at least the next 30 years in prison for his 17-year crime spree.
In her sentencing remarks, the judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, said the firearms officer had told a probation officer about experiencing childhood trauma.
But Carrick’s mother, Jean, who watched the live stream of the sentencing, said she was upset that her son had described his upbringing as traumatic. The 67-year-old, who is estranged from Carrick, said: “That part really hurt me. I don’t want people thinking he was neglected. He was never neglected. Never.”
When asked why she thought Carrick had characterised his childhood as such, she said: “I reckon it was to try to get his sentence reduced. I might be wrong, I don’t know.”
Sentencing Carrick, Cheema-Grubb said: “You described childhood trauma to the probation officer which must have affected your personality. You grew up with parents who drank to excess and neglected you. When they separated, you became the target of abuse by a stepfather in your teens. Like any child, you should have been nurtured and taught moral strength and you were not.”
But Jean said her son had not told the truth. “It’s not true,” she said. “There was no abuse that I can think of, unless I was out at the time but I can’t imagine it. Most of the time I was at work and he was at school.
“The quote about me and his dad drinking is not true. He was never neglected, and his stepdad was only there for a few years with him and, as far as I know, they got on all right.
“He did taekwondo and we went to all the things with him and he got up to a black belt. We went to all the competitions with him, everything. As far as I know he had quite a good life.”
She said that Carrick also enjoyed family holidays abroad and going on French exchange trips.
When asked if she thought he deserved his sentence, she said: “I do, actually. At least he didn’t get a whole life tariff. When he goes to parole they most likely won’t let him out anyway, if he lives that long.”
She added: “I feel a bit numb really, it’s mixed feelings.”
Carrick’s parents separated when he was a teenager and his mother started a relationship with another man, who moved into the family home. Jean said her son cut all contact with her about 15 years ago.
The judge said Carrick’s defence team had not served or relied to any psychiatric or psychological report during the proceedings.
She added: “As an adult, you abused alcohol yourself, although you were able and careful not to do so when working. This indicates that you were able to control yourself when you chose to. There is no mental health issue beyond the inevitable depressive impact of custody.”
She described a suicide attempt by Carrick as “a self-pitying reaction to the shame wrought on you by these proceedings, rather than from remorse”.
