David Carrick: Met Police officer who was unmasked as serial rapist jailed – as court hears he tried to kill himself ‘out of self pity’
An “evil” police officer who was unmasked as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders has been jailed for at least 30 years after being handed 36 life sentences.
David Carrick, 48, was branded a “monster” who carried out a “catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences” against 12 women over nearly two decades.
Carrick was silent and impassive as the sentence was handed down.
The judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she was satisfied that life sentences were required in this case.
She said she agreed with the prosecution that the case does not merit a whole-life order, despite the “upmost seriousness” of the offending.
A whole-life order would have meant he would never have been eligible for parole. Carrick’s sentence means he cannot apply for parole until he has served at least 30 years in prison.
Victims described in court how they were raped, controlled and degraded by Carrick, who they feared was too “powerful” to be reported for his crimes.
Live updates from court as rapist policeman Carrick is sentenced
David Carrick carried out sex crimes against 12 women
Carrick suicide attempt was ‘self-pitying reaction to court proceedings’
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said during sentencing that Carrick was moved to a hospital while in custody after carrying out a “committed attempt” to kill himself.
The judge said the suicide attempt was a “self-pitying reaction” to the “shame” Carrick felt from the court proceedings against him.
The former Metropolitan Police officer had pleaded guilty to 49 charges – including 24 counts of rape – covering a total of 85 offences.
During his sentencing at Southwark Crown Court, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: “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.
“Behind a public appearance of propriety and trustworthiness, you took monstrous advantage of women drawn into intimate relationships with you.
“You brazenly raped and sexually assaulted many women, some you barely knew. 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.”
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David Carrick victim speaks out
The judge went on to speak about a serving Metropolitan Police officer who was raped by Carrick but felt she couldn’t report it to her colleagues.
She said: “The police officer you raped in 2004 had herself been trained to deal sensitively with complainants, but she didn’t report you until 2021. The reason was shame and she didn’t want to put herself through reporting an anal rape.
“She described this as a hypocritical view, but she didn’t feel brave enough to do it, so she told herself to toughen up and move on.”
The judge also said Carrick poses a “high risk of serious sexual harm” to the public.
“I’m sure you present a grave danger to women who might be persuaded to be alone with you,” she added.
Carrick was ‘abused by stepfather’
The judge also revealed how Carrick had spoken to a probation officer about suffering “childhood trauma”.
Carrick grew up with parents “who drank to excess” and he had told of being abused by his stepfather, the court heard.
“As an adult you abused alcohol yourself,” the judge told Carrick.
She added Carrick caused “irretrievable devastation” in the lives of the women he raped and abused.
“Each one is traumatised,” she said.
Carrick shut one of his victims in a cupboard under his stairs. Pic: CPS/Hertfordshire Police
Pic: CPS/Hertfordshire Police
The judge added one of Carrick’s victim described “encountering evil”.
Denial, hatred and betrayal were common emotions felt by the victims, she added.
“You have shaped their lives,” the judge told the court.
“Some have damaged mental health. They don’t trust the police.
“You have not expressed remorse or regret for what you have done.”
The former Met Police officer looked at the floor in the dock throughout the judge’s remarks.
Detective Inspector Iain Moor, a senior officer at Hertfordshire Police, the force which investigated Carrick, said outside court he is “extremely relieved” a “serious and prolific sex offender is now going to be behind bars for a very long time”.
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Ex-Met Police officer David Carrick “brought shame on the profession’, says senior officer
Mr Moor praised the bravery of victims “who were prepared to relive their ordeals and face him in court”.
He said the force has set up a “special reporting portal” to allow people to continue to share information about Carrick.
“If anyone else thinks they have been a victim, we still want to hear from you and we will support you,” he added.
“As a serving police officer he has brought shame on the profession and was not fit to wear the uniform.”
Police forced to apologise over Carrick’s crimes
His case is the latest in a spate of scandals at the Met Police, including the murder of Sarah Everard by then-serving officer Wayne Couzens.
The force was forced to apologise and admit Carrick should have been rooted out earlier after it emerged he came to police attention over nine incidents before he was prosecuted. They included allegations of rape, domestic violence and harassment between 2000 and 2021.
All of Carrick’s admitted crimes occurred while he was working for the Met Police.
Known by colleagues as “B*****d Dave”, he joined the force in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command in 2009, guarding the Houses of Parliament and embassy sites.
Carrick, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, was sacked by the Met Police after his guilty pleas.
Carrick was branded ‘a monster’ by one victim
Officer whipped and urinated on victims
Over a two-day sentencing hearing, the court heard that Carrick held a gun to a woman’s head before repeatedly raping her and threatened to use his police baton on another victim.
Some women were urinated on, locked naked in a cupboard under the stairs in Carrick’s home, whipped and watched remotely through cameras while he was at work.
He also sent a victim a photograph of himself with a work-issue gun, saying: “Remember I am the boss.”
Read more:
Police officer tells of rape by David Carrick
Timeline of missed opportunities to stop rapist police officer
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PC David Carrick films around his house
Prosecutor Tom Little KC said: “The reality was that it did not matter who the victim was … he would rape them, sexually abuse or assault them and humiliate them.”
The court heard one victim – Darciane Nunes Da Silva – who was raped and sexually assaulted by Carrick had waived her right to anonymity.
In a series of victim impact statements read by the prosecutor, women spoke of the trauma they had suffered from Carrick’s crimes – including some who were left suicidal – and how the case had damaged their trust in police.
Carrick told victim: ‘I am the law’
One woman said: “I don’t trust the police any more. If anything went wrong I don’t know whether I would want to call the police as I’d worry that they would send a male officer like him.
“The thought of being alone with a male officer makes me very anxious.”
Another victim said she had been “too frightened” to report Carrick’s crimes after he told her “he was the police, he was the law, and he owned me”.
A whip that was used by Carrick. Pic: CPS/Hertfordshire Police
Meanwhile, the woman who was raped in Carrick’s home after he pointed a gun at her head said she felt she had “encountered evil”.
“I honestly thought he was going to kill me that night,” she added.
The court heard Carrick relied on his “charm” to “beguile and mislead” his victims, then used his “power and control” to stop them leaving or reporting him.
Carrick used cameras in his home to monitor women, the court heard. Pic: CPS/Hertfordshire Police
Pic: CPS/Hertfordshire Police
‘He cannot ask for mercy’
One victim described the police constable as “acting like a monster” and said he would call her “his slave”, asking her to take her clothes off while cleaning his house.
Carrick told another victim he would pay her £1,000 a month to be his “slut”, the court heard.
One woman, who was repeatedly raped by Carrick, told a friend that “nobody would believe her” if she reported the attacks because he “was a police officer and very powerful”.
David Carrick’s house in Stevenage. Pic: CPS/Hertfordshire Police
Alisdair Williamson KC, defending, said Carrick “accepts full responsibility for what he has done”.
He pointed out that one victim had noted that “something had profoundly damaged this man”, saying Carrick was “testament” to how “the abused” can become “the abuser”.
“He cannot ask for mercy and does not,” the barrister said.
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
Read more:
Who is Yang Tenbo?
Virginia Giuffre says she has days to live
Emails between Andrew and Epstein revealed
He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
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