London police apologize as serving officer admits to 49 crimes, including 24 counts of rape
London — London's Metropolitan Police force offered a public apology on Monday after a serving officer admitted to carrying out sex attacks on a dozen women over a nearly two-decade period. Constable David Carrick, 48, has admitted to 49 offenses in total, including four counts of rape, false imprisonment and indecent assault on which he entered guilty pleas Monday.
In total, Carrick has now admitted in court to 24 counts of rape, two counts of attempted rape and 14 counts of sexual assault, in addition to the other charges, most of which were related to sexual violence or coercion.
Britain's PA Media news agency said Carrick admitted in court to raping nine women, some on multiple occasions over months or years, and to having locked some of his victims in his home without food and forcing them to clean his house naked. He said he whipped one woman with a belt, urinated on some of his victims and told them when they could eat and sleep in a pattern of violence and controlling behavior spanning 18 years.
Carrick used online dating sites including Tinder and Badoo to meet some of his victims, and then used his position of authority to gain their trust, according to PA's account of the court proceedings.
The Assistant Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, Barbara Gray, said authorities should have done more after his behavior was reported years ago, and added that the force was "truly sorry" for missing opportunities to remove Carrick from his position.
The officer had been brought to the attention of British authorities over nine incidents, including allegations of rape, domestic abuse and harassment between the years 2000 and 2021, but was only suspended from the Met police force after being arrested over a second rape complaint in 2021.
Carrick had denied a further count of rape in September 2020, relating to a woman whose allegation triggered the investigation. British prosecutors decided it was not in the public interest to proceed to trial on the charge at that time.
Carrick's abuses are just the latest in a serious of scandals that have engulfed London's Metropolitan Police over the past two years.
The rape and murder of 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard in March 2021 by then-Met officer Wayne Couzens brought global scrutiny and sparked widespread protests across the U.K. against violence against women.
Couzens assaulted Everard after falsely arresting her under the guise of enforcing coronavirus lockdown restrictions that were in place at the time. He was sentenced to life in prison in September 2021.
The former Commissioner of the Met, Cressida Dick, resigned in February of last year after Mayor of London Sadiq Khan expressed dissatisfaction with the police's response to the Everard case.
In her resignation statement, Dick said that Everard's murder had "damaged confidence" in the Metropolitan Police.
Responding to the latest revelations about Carrick's crimes, Khan said "serious questions must be answered about how he was able to abuse his position as an officer in this horrendous manner."
"I remain in close contact with the new Met Commissioner about this case and the work to reform the culture and standards of the Met has already started," Khan said in a statement on Monday. "It's vital that all victims of crime have confidence in our police, and we simply must do more to raise standards and empower police leaders to rid the Met and all other police services of those officers who are clearly unfit to serve."