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.”
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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.
Footage of the moment 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s alleged killers were detained after police boarded their plane back to the UK has been played in court.
As they are approached by officers, Sara‘s stepmother Beinash Batool is heard saying: “I think you’re looking for us.”
Batool, 30, Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of carrying out a campaign of abuse against her culminating in her death at her family home in Surrey on 8 August last year.
The defendants, along with five of Sara’s siblings, aged between one and 13, flew to Pakistan the following day.
Sara’s body was found by police in a bunkbed on 10 August after Sharif called police from Pakistan to say he had beaten her “too much” for being “naughty”.
A murder investigation was launched involving agencies including Interpol and the National Crime Agency to locate the defendants.
They returned to the UK on a flight from Dubai to Gatwick Airport on 13 September.
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‘I beat her up too much’
The clips of officers’ body-worn video shown to the jury on Friday captured the moment police boarded the plane and detained the defendants at 7.42pm, seven minutes after touchdown.
After Batool addresses the officers, Sharif, who had been sitting next to her, is asked to follow them.
The three were then taken off the plane and arrested.
Pic: Surrey Police
A post-mortem examination established Sara had sustained extensive and significant injuries over a sustained period prior to her death.
The jury heard on Friday how concerns were raised by Sara’s school about bruising on her body in June 2022 and March 2023.
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Sara Sharif ‘never smiled once’, jury told
Several items seized from Sara’s home were also reviewed by the court, including a leather belt which had full DNA samples at both ends for Sara, Sharif, and Malik.
A cricket bat was also found to have Sara’s DNA profile on it, along with the DNA samples of Sharif and Malik.
Neither item had a DNA trace of Batool.
The court also reviewed the defendants’ bank accounts – both joint and separate.
All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
Six teenagers have been arrested after a 13-year-old girl was found with multiple stab wounds on a roadside near Hull.
Police said she was found around 6.50am on the A63 in Hessle with “life-threatening injuries” including “lacerations to her neck, abdomen, chest and back”.
Four boys and two girls – aged between 14 and 17 – were quickly arrested in a nearby wooded area and are being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder.
Members of the public came to the girl’s aid before emergency services arrived, Humberside Police said.
Detective Superintendent Simon Vickers said they “believe the attackers knew the victim” and the circumstances are still being investigated.
“The girl remains in hospital in critical condition and her family are being supported by officers at this difficult time,” he added.
The boys arrested are aged 14, 15, 16 and 17, and the girls 14 and 15.
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Cordons are in place around a wooded area off Ferriby High Road while investigations continue.
Police said they would have an increased presence in the area over the weekend and have asked anyone with information or video to get in touch, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously.
UK
Ex-soldier Daniel Khalife tells court it was a ‘foolish idea’ to have someone with his ‘skillset’ in prison
A former soldier has told a jury his escape from Wandsworth prison to avoid being held with sex offenders and terrorists showed his “skillset”.
Daniel Khalife, 23, who was being held accused of passing secrets to Iran said he was “never a real spy” but planned a fake defection to the state following his arrest after watching American television show Homeland.
He said he wanted to be moved to a high-security unit because he was getting unwanted attention from the sex offenders on the vulnerable prisoners wing and feared a move to Belmarsh prison because, as a British soldier, terrorists wanted to kill him.
Khalife said he first wanted to “make a show” of escaping, acting suspiciously and covering himself in soot from a food delivery lorry on 21 August last year, while he was working in the prison kitchen.
He was spotted and reported to security but was “pretty shocked” when nothing happened so decided to take the “full measure,” he told the jury.
A makeshift sling. Pic: Met Police
Talking about his escape for the first time at his Woolwich Crown Court trial, Khalife told how he fashioned a makeshift sling from kitchen trousers and carabiners used by inmates to keep their possessions safe from rats.
He attached it to the Bidfood lorry on 1 September last year, to see if it would be spotted by officers at Wandsworth or other prisons on the delivery route.
“I put the two carabiners and the makeshift rope underneath the lorry,” he said.
“When I had made the decision to actually leave the prison I was going to do it properly so I tested the security not just in Wandsworth
“Strangely, over the coming days, I could see it but it wasn’t spotted in Wandsworth or any other prison.”
Then on the morning of 6 September, Khalife said he concealed himself underneath the lorry, resting his back on the sling as the lorry was searched.
“They did normal checks around with torches but they didn’t find me. After that, a governor came to the tunnel and said, ‘Have you searched the vehicle?’
“I was facing upwards. There was action around the lorry.”
Daniel Khalife joined the Army aged 16
He said that when the vehicle stopped he “came out underneath the lorry and stayed in the prone position” until the lorry moved off.
Khalife, who joined the Army aged 16 and took up a post with the Royal Signals, based in Beacons barracks, Staffordshire, said he made no attempt to leave the country and had no intention to “run away” from the charges he was facing.
He was arrested three days later on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt, west London, after a nationwide manhunt.
Asked why he had not handed himself in after his escape, Khalife said: “I was finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was to have someone of my skillset in prison. What use was that to anyone?”
“I accept that I left the prison and didn’t have any permission to do so,” he said. “I accept absolutely that I shouldn’t have done what I did.”
Daniel Khalife
Inspired by Homeland
The court has heard Khalife initiated contact with Iranian intelligence officers after he was told he could not pass developed vetting because his mother was born in Iran.
Khalife told MI5 he wanted to be a “double agent” and he said in court he thought he would be “congratulated” but described his arrest as like a “punch in the face”.
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Wearing a blue checked shirt and chinos, he said police were “blinded at the prospect of a successful prosecution” but he did not think being in prison would be in “the public interest”.
“I didn’t do anything that harmed our national security. I wanted to put myself in a position where I could help my country,” he said.
“I believed I could continue my work actually located in the state – the state being Iran.”
Khalife said he took inspiration from watching Homeland, starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, in which Americans and terrorists go undercover, on Netflix.
“I had seen one of the characters in the programme had actually falsely defected to a particular country and utilised that position to further the national security interests of that character’s country,” he said.
“The country in question, Iran, thought it was real. She did it to further the interests of her own country.”
Khalife told jurors he is a “patriot”, adding: “I do love my country. All I wanted to do was help. I never wanted to do any harm, I never did do any harm.”
He added: “It is tragic it has come to this and I would do anything to go back to my career.”
Khalife, from Kingston, southwest London, denies a charge of committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state under the Official Secrets Act between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022.
He has also pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Terrorism Act of eliciting information about Armed Forces personnel on 2 August 2021, perpetrating a bomb hoax on or before 2 January 2023 and escaping from prison on 6 September last year.
The trial continues.
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