The police watchdog has launched multiple investigations over concerns that the Metropolitan police repeatedly failed to take appropriate action when serious criminal allegations were made against the serial rapist David Carrick while he was an officer.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said that if a 2002 allegation of harassment made by a former partner of Carrick’s had been investigated, he could potentially have been sacked before beginning the series of attacks for which he was jailed.
Carrick was sentenced to life in prison in February for 85 serious offences, including 48 rapes, against 12 women from 2003 to 2020, carried out while taking “monstrous advantage” of his position as a police officer.
The IOPC said on Thursday that it was launching four investigations into the conduct of eight Met officers and one staff member. The Met was asked to undertake a review last year into any reports that could have led to action being taken against Carrick sooner, but did not identify any matters of concern relating to the conduct of the staff who handled them.
The 2002 allegation made by Carrick’s former partner, while he was a probationary constable, was investigated by the Met, but no referral was made to its department of professional standards (DPS) and Carrick was only spoken to by his line manager.
The other three cases where the IOPC is investigating the role of Met officers are:
A 2016 report of harassment and stalking made by a former partner, which was investigated by Hampshire constabulary.
A 2019 report of a woman being attacked and dragged out of Carrick’s house by him, which was investigated by Hertfordshire constabulary.
A February 2021 report of a woman being raped by Carrick, which was initially recorded by Sussex police.
In each of these three cases, misconduct investigations were started by the Met’s DPS but were not progressed after forces investigating the allegations advised that no further action was being taken.
The officers being investigated by the IOPC, some of whom have since retired and one of whom now works for another force, range in rank from police constable to chief inspector. Six worked for the Met’s DPS.
The IOPC regional director, Mel Palmer, said: “We identified indications some officers may have behaved in a manner which would justify disciplinary proceedings. Our review has identified repeated failures to progress conduct investigations when the Met’s DPS officers were advised that no further action was being taken by the forces carrying out the criminal investigations into Carrick.
“We were also deeply concerned to find that in respect of two of the cases, David Carrick’s name was removed from the MPS’s [Metropolitan Police Services’s] system records after the criminal investigations were dropped. This meant that some prior allegations made against Carrick did not show up in the system when further allegations were later made, leading to MPS officers being unable to build a complete picture of his pattern of offending.
“These were potentially missed opportunities to pursue gross misconduct investigations against Carrick, which may have led to his dismissal years before he was eventually arrested.”
