Rapist former police officer David Carrick has been handed 36 life sentences and will serve a minimum 30 years and 239 days in prison for attacking a dozen women over a 17-year period.
Carrick, who joined the Met Police in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in 2009, pleaded guilty to 49 charges, including 24 counts of rape. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb sentenced Carrick, 48, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday.
Deducting the number of days he had spent in custody from his minimum term at the end of a two-day sentencing hearing, 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 serving with the force – he guarded sites including embassies and the Houses of Parliament, and completed training courses, including one on domestic abuse in 2005. At the first day of his sentencing hearing on Monday, the court was told that the disgraced Pc used his “power and control” to stop his victims leaving or reporting him,
He sent one of his victims a photograph of himself with a police-issue gun, saying: “Remember I am the boss.” Carrick also used his police baton as a threat and handcuffs in an attack over 17 years between 2003 and 2020.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC said the “systematic” offending was “catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences”. In a victim impact statement, one said she felt she had “encountered evil” after being repeatedly raped by Carrick who put a black handgun to her head and put his hands around her throat.
Other women said they feared they would not be believed if they reported Carrick and no longer trusted the police after what he had done to them. Mr Little said a search of Carrick’s electronic devices revealed searches for pornography including words such as “extreme” and “painful”.
The 49 charges admitted by Carrick include 24 counts of rape, nine counts of sexual assault, five counts of assault by penetration, three counts of coercive and controlling behaviour, three counts of false imprisonment, two counts of attempted rape, one count of attempted sexual assault by penetration, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and one count of indecent assault.
Some are multiple-incident counts, meaning they relate to at least 85 separate offences, including at least 71 sexual offences and 48 rapes. He denied a further count of rape in September 2020 relating to a 13th woman, whose allegation triggered the investigation, with the Crown Prosecution Service deciding it was not in the public interest to proceed to trial.
On Monday, Alisdair Williamson KC, defending, said Carrick “accepts fully responsibility for what he has done” and that it is likely any life sentence will “bring him close to, if not to, the close of his natural life”.
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 incidents – including allegations of rape, domestic violence and harassment – between 2000 and 2021, 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 pleading guilty and being unmasked as one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders. Carrick’s 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.
