Metropolitan Police missed NINE chances to catch sick rapist cop David Carrick who worked for same unit as Wayne Couzens | The Sun
SADISTIC David Carrick was able to carry on exploiting his authority to rape and abuse despite being reported to police on nine separate occasions.
He was allowed to carry on with gun duties protecting Downing Street and Parliament even after being arrested for rape in July 2021.
No further action was taken in the case, though Carrick has now pleaded guilty to the rape and other offences against the woman.
Carrick worked for the force's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command unit – the same department as Sarah Everard's killer Wayne Couzens.
It is not clear if the pair knew each other while working at the elite unit.
It can now be revealed how former soldier Carrick passed his vetting to join the Met in August 2001 despite being named as a suspect in two offences the previous year.
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A former girlfriend made separate allegations of burglary and sending a malicious communication against Carrick to the Met.
Carrick, who had refused to accept the end of their relationship, was not arrested and no further action was taken over either allegation.
After training, Carrick became a response officer in Merton, South London, transferring to Barnet, North London, in July 2005.
He joined the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command (PaDP) in 2009 and remained there until his arrest and suspicion in October 2021.
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By then, Carrick had been named as a suspect to police over further alleged offences against women while he was off duty.
In 2002 a former partner reported him for harassment and assault to the Met – but he was not arrested and the case was dropped.
Then in 2004 police attended a “domestic incident” involving Carrick but there was no criminal allegations made and he was not arrested.
After that, Carrick came to police attention on the following occasions:
- 2009. Herts cops attended a third-party report of domestic violence against Carrick. No complaint is made by the alleged injured person and no further action taken. Herts Police say the matter was referred to the Met, though the London force say they have no record of it in their systems.
- 2016. Carrick was accused of harassment by a woman to Hampshire Police. He was not arrested and no further action was taken.
- 2017. He is quizzed by Thames Valley Police officers after being ejected from a Reading nightclub for being drunk. He was not arrested.
- September 2019. Carrick is accused by a third party of domestic assault by grabbing a woman around the neck and criminal damage.
- It was referred to Herts Police domestic violence unit but no further action was taken because the alleged victim did not want to make a complaint. The Met were informed and he was given words of advice but it was decided there was no case to answer for misconduct. It has now been referred to the IOPC by the Met.
- July 2021. A woman reported an unconnected matter to Sussex Police claims Carrick raped her a year earlier at his home.
- The case is referred to Herts Police who arrested Carrick on suspicion of rape. But the woman dropped her complaint and the case was dropped in August. Carrick has now pleaded guilty to raping her and other offences.
The Met were informed when he was initially arrested and he was placed on restricted duties but when the case was dropped he returned to full duties.
No background checks were made on Carrick which would have shown his long history of complaints about domestic violence.
The Met have referred the matter to the IOPC for review.
Glaring vetting failures have also been identified.
He should have been vetted in 2011 again, 10 years after joining the Met but there was a six-year delay and it didn’t happen until 2017.
Carrick had also been subject to five complaints from the public while he was on duty between 2002 and 2008 for rudeness, incivility and excessive force.
Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Millichap said: “When the overall case history is examined now in detail, it reveals a pattern of behaviour that should have raised concerns regardless of the outcome of individual incidents.
“The processes in place at the time did not identify this risk properly.
“Our approach has changed significantly and we are more confident that this pattern would be identified now, and that it would result in further investigation.”
She added: “The Met’s approach to vetting has changed significantly in recent years and is now far more robust.
“We are confident that someone applying to join the Met today with the same pre-employment history would not receive vetting clearance.”
Carrick was eventually arrested when a 50-year-old woman came forward after reading about another police sex offender to say Carrick had raped her on a date.
Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray, the Met's lead for professionalism, said Carrick's offending was "unprecedented in policing" and apologised to his victims for failing to remove him from the force.
"We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behaviour and because we didn't, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organisation," she said.
"We are truly sorry that being able to continue to use his role as a police officer may have prolonged the suffering of his victims."
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She added: "What we are responsible for, and I truly apologise for, is that we have failed to identify the abusive behaviours that he has conducted over a long, long period of time.
"We are truly sorry that he was not identified earlier, that victims felt that they couldn't come forward earlier, and we have to bear that responsibility that he continued then to use his position as a police officer to exploit and manipulate and carry out his predatory behaviours."
Scandal-hit Met probes more allegations against its officers
More than 1,600 cases of alleged sexual offences or domestic violence involving Metropolitan Police officers and staff are being reviewed in the wake of the David Carrick case.
The force said that accusations ranging from arguments to the most serious sexual crimes from the last 10 years are being checked to make sure that the appropriate decisions were made.
A total of 1,633 cases involving 1,071 officers and staff are set to be reviewed.
The force said that most officers whose cases are reviewed will remain on duty without being subject to restrictions while the inquiries are carried out.
A spokesman said: "In the event that information was to emerge from a review that raised concerns then an officer or member of staff's status would be reconsidered without delay.
"All new allegations against officers and staff are subject to robust risk management including restrictions and suspension where appropriate."
The Met has already faced heavy criticism of its internal disciplinary procedures with Baroness Casey finding the system is racist and misogynist, and that allegations of sexual misconduct or discrimination are less likely to result in a case to answer than other claims.
The peer said that some officers and staff were getting away with misconduct and even criminal behaviour.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has said he believes hundreds of corrupt officers are serving within the force and should be sacked.
National concerns have also been raised about how police forces deal with allegations of domestic abuse made against officers and staff.
Watchdogs found that there were systemic weaknesses in the way that the claims are dealt with following a so-called super-complaint, a system used to raise wider issues in policing, made by women's justice campaigners.
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