David Carrick, the Metropolitan Police officer and serial rapist, will serve at least 30 years behind bars for carrying out more than 70 sex attacks on at least a dozen women.
In a two-day sentencing hearing, Southwark Crown Court heard how the 48-year-old “monster” used his power and control to carry out a “catalogue of violent and brutal” sex attacks between 2003 and 2020.
His victims spoke of how they had “encountered evil”, and the court was told Carrick sent one of his victims a photograph of himself with a work-issue gun, saying: “Remember I am the boss.”
Carrick, who was sacked from the force following his conviction, was handed 36 life sentences with a minimum term of 32 years.
The sex predator previously admitted 49 charges, including 24 counts of rape and charges of sexual assault, controlling and coercive behaviour and false imprisonment.
Deducting the number of days he had spent in custody from his minimum term on Tuesday, 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 sat in the dock wearing a dark suit, white shirt and patterned tie as Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb began her sentencing remarks.
The judge said she had considered the possibility of imposing a whole life tariff, but had decided that his offences did not meet the “wholly exceptional test”.
She said he had taken “monstrous advantage” of his position as a police officer to “brazenly rape and sexually assault many women”.
“You believed you were untouchable, and for many years you were,” she told him.
The judge said that some of Carrick’s victims had been forced into controlling and coercive relationships and she said he had demonstrated an “escalating, extreme domination” of these women.
She said he had also shown his “utter contempt” for his victims as human beings.
Victim with mild learning disabilities
The court was told that one of Carrick’s victims had mild learning disabilities and their relationship had been exploitative.
The judge said he had initially been charming towards her, but under the influence of alcohol turned into a “monster” raping, abusing and humiliating her.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Carrick’s crimes had had an “irretrievably devastating impact” on the lives of his victims.
“You have shaped their lives and deprived them of the ability to form relationships,” she said.
The judge noted that Carrick’s violent sexual offending “commenced almost immediately” after he became a police constable.
She told Carrick: “You have lost your liberty, job and status and the prospect of a difficult time in custody for many years.”
As the court was taken through the details of each harrowing offence, Carrick sat in the glass-walled dock with his head bowed, flanked by two male custody officers.
The judge told the court that during a pre-sentence report, Carrick had claimed he had suffered childhood trauma at the hands of alcoholic parents and an abusive stepfather.
The judge also revealed that while on remand at HMP Belmarsh, Carrick had tried to kill himself.
He was airlifted to hospital where he recovered and was returned to custody.
Mrs Cheema-Grubb said in her opinion this suicide attempt had been a “self-pitying action brought on by the shame of these proceedings rather than remorse”.
The court was also told Carrick had been treated at the secure hospital at Rampton where he had been diagnosed with severe depression.
Alisdair Williamson, Carrick’s lawyer, said that the defendant “did not ask for mercy and did not expect any”.
He said: “There can be no excuse, only the shadow of an explanation… he is testament of the abused becoming the abuser.”
Last month, Carrick, who was an armed officer with the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Unit, pleaded guilty to 49 separate charges, confirming his status as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.
On Monday, the court heard heart-rending accounts from his victims, who described how his years of abuse had destroyed their lives and shattered their confidence in the police.
Carrick was arrested in Oct 2021 after a woman came forward to Hertfordshire Constabulary to report that she had been raped by a serving Met officer.
Following the publicity surrounding his arrest and charge, more women came forward with allegations of sexual abuse, rape and domestic violence dating back to 2003.
Two of his victims were police officers, while others were targeted because they were vulnerable.
It subsequently emerged that police missed no fewer than nine opportunities to identify Carrick’s patterns of behaviour and offending which lasted almost two decades.
Southwark Crown Court heard how Carrick repeatedly used his status as a police officer to attract, abuse and then silence his victims, convincing them they would never be believed if they came forward.
One victim described how she was too frightened to report him after he “drilled into her that he was the police, he was the law”.
Another victim discouraged from reporting rape
Another, who suffered a violent rape at his hands, recalled how she was told by a nurse in hospital that there was little point in lodging a complaint because “the law protects its own”.
Outlining the prosecution case against him, Tom Little told Southwark Crown Court that Carrick had been responsible for a “systematic catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences perpetrated on multiple victims”.
The prosecutor said it did not matter to Carrick who the victims were, adding: “Where he had the opportunity he would rape them, sexually abuse them, assault them and humiliate them.
“He frequently relied on his charm to beguile and mislead the victims in the first place and would then use his power and control – in part because of what he did for a living – to stop them leaving or consider reporting him.
“He was no doubt aware that they would conclude they would be unlikely to be believed if they were to come forward on their own and claim that a Metropolitan Police officer had raped them.”
Carrick targeted his first victim in 2003, meeting her in a bar and telling her she would be safe with him because he was a police officer.
He then invited the woman back to his south London flat, where he repeatedly and violently raped her.
The court was told that as she tried to get away, she had bitten his arm and Carrick had put a black handgun to her head telling her: “You are not going.”
In her moving impact statement, the woman said: “That night, I felt I had encountered evil. For the past 19 years, I’ve been lost in my own life mainly due to this one event.
“I distinctly remember his words, ‘Come on, you can trust me. I am the safest person you can be around. I am a police officer’.
“I honestly thought he was going to kill me that night. I thought he was going to rape me and kill me and that my life would be over.”
Another of Carrick’s victims, who was subjected to almost two years of degrading sexual attacks, described how he threatened her with his police baton and sent her a photograph of his work-issue firearm saying: “Remember, I am the boss.”
Controlling and coercive behaviour unmasked
Carrick sometimes would sometimes use dating websites to target his victims often entering into controlling and coercive relationships.
One victim described how he dictated what she could eat and when she could sleep, locking her in a tiny cupboard under the stairs if she displeased him.
The Met failed to take action against Carrick despite numerous complaints being raised about his behaviour.
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 2021 murder of Sarah Everard, who was raped and strangled by Wayne Couzens, at the time a serving Met Police officer.
