David Carrick: Rapist ex-Met Police officer found guilty of sexually abusing 12-year-old girl
Predatory ex-police officer David Carrick has been found guilty of molesting a 12-year-old girl and raping his ex-partner.
A hearing at the Old Bailey heard Carrick, 50, put his hand over the girl’s mouth to “prevent her from screaming” as he indecently assaulted her in the late 1980s.
More than 20 years later, a former Met Police officer repeatedly raped a woman and subjected her to “degrading and humiliating” abuse during a toxic relationship.
Carrick, a serial sex offender, admitted 71 sexual offences, including 48 rapes, against 12 women over the age of 17 in 2022 and 2023. Following these convictions, the girl and woman came forward to accuse Carrick of further crimes.
On Thursday, he was found guilty of two more rape charges, including one of sexual assault and coercive and controlling behavior towards the woman between 2014 and 2019.
Carrick, dressed in a suit and tie, nodded repeatedly in the dock as the verdicts were read.
He appeared to sigh after hearing that he had been found guilty of raping his former partner.
The 12-year-old girl was allegedly in grade 7 at the school when Carrick began harassing her for 18 months in the late 1980s.
He described Carrick as “very controlling” and “obnoxious”. In a pre-recorded video interview played to the court, she said she was “living in fear” after the sexual attacks began.
She said the incidents left her in shock, adding: “I didn’t understand it. I was quite naive at 12.”
During the trial, jurors heard how the girl told her mother what had happened and that Carrick confessed in a letter obtained from her medical records and signed “Dave.”
In it, Carrick wrote that the girl was “not crazy” and that it was “true” but that she stopped about four months ago.
He wrote: “I know how (the girl) must feel. That’s why I stopped and promised to never go near her again and I kept that promise and always will.”
The now-adult victim described young Carrick as “very cunning” and “manipulative” in a police interview.
After telling her mother about the abuse, she said the matter was “swept under the carpet like it was nothing.”
Giving evidence in court, he told jurors: “The words I always used when I heard he was a Metropolitan Police officer were: ‘God help anyone with a warrant on him’.”
The second victim met Carrick through a dating site and was aware from the beginning that he was a police officer.
She said he was “charming, witty, sarcastic” and acted like “everyone’s best friend.”
However, during their relationship, he became controlling and raped her multiple times.
She told jurors she was traumatized and that Carrick had “ruined” her life and tainted her views on sex and relationships.
When interviewed at Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire, Carrick claimed sexual intercourse with the woman was consensual and accused her of being motivated by the MeToo movement.
Despite her written confession, he denied the historic allegations of child abuse, claiming the girl was a liar.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC told jurors Carrick felt “invincible” as a police officer for two decades until it all “came full to his ears” in 2022.
He said Carrick introduced himself as “Mr Nice Guy” but his silence in the dock was “deafening”.
Following the verdicts, senior Crown Prosecutor Shilpa Shah said both the compelling evidence from the victims and the written confession constituted “a very strong case”.
Evidence showed that Carrick was a child abuser from a young age and that his sexual offending “escalated” over decades into adulthood.
He said: “I would describe David Carrick as a manipulative, controlling and abusive man who created an image to the rest of the world so that no one would understand what he was doing behind closed doors.
“He was aggressive, he was abusive, he was violent, but he still seemed attractive and charismatic. He didn’t trust his victims to come forward and expose him like that, and I want to thank them for doing that.”
He added: “This is one of the most horrific, heartbreaking cases I have ever had to deal with. “It was really quite difficult listening to the victims describe the humiliating and humiliating abuse they were subjected to.
“It was very shocking and so I want to thank the victims for having the courage to come forward and tell what they had to go through and so were able to secure the convictions we have today.”
Detective Superintendent Iain Moor, of Hertfordshire Constabulary, said the future could have been very different had Carrick’s confession been given to police in 1990.
He said of the guilty verdicts: “I’m glad we were able to get justice for the victims.
“This was all about them and making sure they had a voice and were able to tell their story and were believed. I hope this helps them heal.”
Mr Moor said the Carrick case and the murder of Sarah Everard by another Met officer, Wayne Couzens, had caused “huge damage” to the police.
“Hopefully people are starting to feel more confident about coming forward and reporting it to the police. I think there’s more work to be done,” the senior police officer said.
Mr Moor called for other victims of Carrick’s abuse to come forward.
