A court in London has sentenced former police constable David Carrick to 36 life terms after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting 12 women. The 48 year old must serve at least 30 years in prison before being eligible for parole.
A former police officer had been committing crimes for 17 years - from 2003 to 2020. It was revealed in 2021, when one of his victims decided to report it to the authorities after hearing the story of Sarah Everard, a London resident who was raped and killed by police officer Wayne Couzens, who got a life sentence for this.
Carrick joined the London Police in 2001 at age 26. In 2005, he completed a course on domestic violence cases, and in 2009 he was part of a unit that guarded Parliament, government buildings and embassies. During his career in the police, Carrick had been repeatedly complained against for using force but this never led to any official charges.
The first of the known crimes committed by Carrick occurred in 2003. The police officer met a woman at a bar and repeatedly raped her, assuring her that she was safe because he was a police officer. His second victim in 2004 was a fellow police officer who voluntarily agreed to spend the night with him but he engaged her in anal sex without her consent. Neither of the victims immediately reported what happened.
Amongst other victims of Carrick were both women he had just met (often through dating apps) and those he had already been seeing for some time. Not only did he commit sexual but also psychological violence; one of the women he called his slave, two others were locked in a tiny cupboard underneath the stairs, another was isolated from her family and friends as well as being monitored over what she ate and for how long she slept.
According to the investigation, Carrick had been using his position of authority to gain access to women's trust and later threaten them. He would use handcuffs during the rapes and sent a picture of his service weapon with the words 'Remember I'm the Boss Here' to one of his victims.
At the court hearing it became known that Carrick, who repeatedly committed offences while inebriated at a young age, was himself a victim of violence from his parents who abused alcohol. It was also stated that while under arrest he had attempted to commit suicide. When issuing her verdict Judge Bobby Chima-Grabb called Carrick a monster and expressed the opinion that his attempt at suicide arose from pity for himself rather than remorse.
After the sentencing of Carrick, London's police commissioner Mark Rowley apologized and promised to carry out reforms to regain women's trust in the police.
"He [Carrick] used his position as a policeman in the most deplorable way. He should not have been allowed to work for the police. We were not stringent enough and we overlooked warning signs for decades <.…> We sincerely regret" said Rowley.
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