Former Met Police officer gets 30-year jail term for rape

A former policeman was sentenced on Tuesday for a minimum term of 30 years for dozens of rapes and sexual assaults in the latest case to shame London's Metropolitan Police force.

Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb handed David Carrick 36 life sentences for a monstrous string of 71 sexual offences against 12 women.

She said Carrick, whose crimes included 48 rapes, represented a grave danger to women that would last indefinitely. She said that Carrick, 48, a long-serving officer, will serve three decades behind bars before he can be considered for parole.

The case comes as the Met has pledged to end a culture of misogyny and lax vetting highlighted by the rape and murder of a young woman who was snatched off the street by a serving police officer in March 2021.

Since the murder of Londoner Sarah Everard during the Pandemic, anger and distrust towards the police have mounted since. The man has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail.

Carrick and Couzens served in the same armed unit protecting MPs and foreign diplomats.

Cheema-Grubb said Carrick had brazenly raped and sexually assaulted his victims, believing him to be untouchable due to his position which afforded him exceptional powers to coerce and control. Only a sentence of life imprisonment could reflect the gravity of his crimes, she added.

A string of other cases involving police officers have also come to light since the crimes of Carrick and Couzens were uncovered.

In a statement on Monday, Carrick told the court that he used his status as a police officer to reassure women and begin their relationships before exposing them to a catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences. Carrick also humiliated the women, including locking them naked in a small cupboard, urinating on them and whipping them.

In statements read out by the prosecutor in court, his victims said they felt trapped by him and don't trust the police. The police had records of multiple complaints and allegations involving Carrick's behaviour but he never faced a disciplinary hearing.

Carrick was sacked from the police only last month after pleading guilty in court.

Interior Minister Suella Braverman said on Monday that policing must do better. Braverman said she had asked police forces to strengthen vetting and that standards need to be raised so that cases like these become a thing of the past. The Met, Britain's biggest force, has apologised for not acting on the prior allegations against Carrick, who served in an armed unit protecting MPs and foreign diplomats.

She said the force's assistant commissioner Barbara Gray said before the sentencing that we failed to identify a man in the ranks who carried out the most awful offences. She said he should not have been a police officer.

The force admitted last month that two to three officers faced criminal charges in court every week.

The Met has set up an investigative team to investigate Carrick's case by setting up an investigative team to target staff suspected of domestic abuse or sexual offences.

It is looking at all current officers and staff who have faced allegations that did not result in charges or misconduct hearings.