Two police officers have been disciplined for misconduct after the bungling of an investigation which left serial sex attacker David Carrick free for five further years before he was finally arrested.
Carrick while an officer with the Metropolitan police waged a campaign of terror and humiliation against women starting in 2003 and lasting 17 years.
He committed at least 85 acts of serious offending, including 48 rapes, to become one of the worst sex offenders in modern history, before being arrested in 2021.
The two officers sanctioned were with the Wiltshire force which in 2016 received an allegation naming Carrick and alleging he had abused a woman.
The case was closed, a discipline tribunal heard, without the victim being spoken to, and without checks being carried out on the police systems. They would have shown that at the time Carrick was already under investigation for another alleged attack on a different woman reported three days earlier.
Furthermore the case was closed by Wiltshire without Carrick’s force, the Met, ever being told.
One year later Carrick passed revetting by the Met and his offending escalated, with further victims suffering.
The Guardian understands that the woman at the centre of the 2016 complaint about Carrick would have supported action being taken against him.
It potentially represents another missed chance to have identified Carrick as a danger to women, with the Met already having admitted a string of blunders and mishandling of allegations against him before he was unmasked.
Carrick was a Met officer from 2001 who was selected to serve with the elite parliamentary and diplomatic protection unit and entrusted with a gun. In 2023 he was jailed and ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years for the attacks over a 17-year period on 12 women. His status as a Met officer, police and prosecutors believed, was a key part of his intimidating women into silence and in some cases putting them at ease.
The two Wiltshire officers disciplined are David Tippetts, found guilty on five allegations, a sergeant at the time, and now an inspector. When the 2016 complaint was received it was passed to PC Emma Fisher, found guilty on 11 allegations. Both officers agreed the case should be closed, despite the failure to take basic investigative steps.
The two officers received a final written warning for discreditable conduct and a failure in duties, which remains active for two years, and were allowed to keep their jobs. They were originally charged with gross misconduct – meaning they could be sacked – but the panel believed they had shown remorse, admitted errors early and admitted misconduct.
Debaleena Dasgupta of the Centre for Women’s Justice said: “These were very serious failings, which will shock most people. It’s only right that a serious sanction has been applied. If Carrick had been caught in January 2016, at least six of his victims would have been spared his horrific conduct.
“Time and time again, CWJ sees inadequate and incompetent police investigations being conducted in allegations of rape and abuse. This is across all police forces and in relation to all suspects.”
The complaint against Carrick in 2016 was made by an acquaintance of the female victim.
The victim herself complained in 2023 to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which investigated.
Wiltshire’s deputy chief constable Craig Dibdin said: “This is a clear case of officers failing, in the most basic sense, to properly investigate allegations made to them.
“This failure in service was compounded by a lack of proper oversight and scrutiny by a supervisor.
“Clearly the public will have questions as to the impact this inaction might have had on Carrick’s vile offending after 2016.
“I would like to apologise unreservedly to the person whose report we did not initially investigate as we should.”
IOPC regional director Mel Palmer said: “There was a missed opportunity by Wiltshire police officers to investigate him [Carrick] following a report of a serious abuse allegation made years before he was eventually arrested.
“PC Fisher took minimal investigative action. She didn’t try to contact the victim of the reported crime, flag to the Met a serious allegation against one of its officers, or search David Carrick’s name on Wiltshire police’s systems. This would have shown that Carrick was already under investigation following another report of a serious offence three days earlier.
“PC Fisher requested the investigation be closed following minimal work or effort, and her supervisor, PS Tippetts, agreed and – contrary to the force’s policy – failed to flag any concerns to colleagues in CID who specialise in investigating serious allegations.”
The Carrick case is already under investigation by the government-ordered inquiry being conducted by Dame Elish Angiolini.
Hertfordshire police are investigating further potential criminal allegations against Carrick.
The IOPC investigations into alleged failings by other officers who received complaints against Carrick continues.
