Rapist Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick will serve at least 30 years behind bars as a judge said he used his job to take “monstrous advantage of women”.
The disgraced 48-year-old Pc, who was described as a “monster” and “evil” by some of his dozen victims, carried 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.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told him: “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 your duty.
“Behind a public appearance of propriety and trustworthiness you took monstrous advantage of women.
“You brazenly raped and sexually assaulted a number of women, some very brutally and you behaved as if you were untouchable.
“You were bold and at times relentless, trusting that no victim would overcome her shame and fear to report you.
“For nearly two decades, you were proved right but now a combination of those 12 women, by coming forward, and your police colleagues, by acting on their evidence, have exposed you and brought you low.
“You have lost your liberty, your job and your status. You have before you the prospect of a difficult time in custody for many years.”
Carrick sat in the dock with his eyes closed and head bowed during the hearing in a packed courtroom, including some of his victims, and showed no emotion as he was sentenced.
The court heard Carrick had attempted to kill himself while on remand at Belmarsh prison and was detained in a secure hospital but was found not to be suffering from any mental disorder.
The judge told him: “You were driven to try to commit suicide as a self-pitying reaction to the shame brought on you by these proceedings rather than remorse.”
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.”
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.
The case is the latest in a string of damaging scandals for the Met, including Ms Everard’s murder, racist and misogynist messages exchanged by a team at Charing Cross, and the strip-search of a teenage girl at school while she was menstruating.
