‘Dangerous’ sexual predator David Carrick jailed for life for further abuse offences
Serial sex offender and former police officer David Carrick was sentenced to a 37th life sentence with a minimum sentence of 30 years for abusing a 12-year-old girl and raping his former partner.
Carrick, 50, was found guilty on Wednesday of “appalling” crimes spanning 30 years. The trial at the Old Bailey heard how his “aggressive and violent” behavior “escalated” after he abused the girl in the 1980s, and more than 20 years later he subjected a woman to “degrading and degrading abuse”.
The former Metropolitan Police officer is currently serving 36 life sentences with a minimum term of 32 years after admitting a string of sexual offenses against 12 women in February 2023. Following his conviction, two victims at the center of the second case approached police to accuse Carrick of further sexual offending.
On Wednesday Carrick was found guilty at the Old Bailey of five charges of sexual assault on a child and two charges of rape, one of which was sexual assault and controlling and coercive behavior towards a former partner.
Sentencing, Mrs Justice McGowan praised the victims’ “courage and resilience” and said she had “no doubt” Carrick was “dangerous”.
During the trial, jurors heard how Carrick abused a young girl for nearly 18 months before telling her mother.
He confessed in a letter obtained from his 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 went on to form a relationship with him, telling jurors he seemed “charming, witty, sarcastic” and seemed like “everyone’s best friend”.
However, during their relationship, he became controlling and raped her multiple times.
The court heard she was traumatized and Carrick had “ruined” her life and tainted her views on sex and relationships.
During police interrogation over her allegations, Carrick said sexual intercourse with the woman was consensual and accused her of being motivated by the MeToo movement.
But after five hours of deliberation, jurors found the former police officer guilty of five counts of sexual assault against the child and two counts of rape, including one count of sexual assault and controlling and coercive behavior towards a former partner.
Sentencing, Mrs Justice McGowan noted Carrick’s “cynical willingness” to force the two women to give evidence in court because he continued to deny wrongdoing.
The judge said Carrick’s failure to act on a written confession to abusing the 12-year-old girl in 1990, when he was a teenager at the time, would have consequences for his future offending.
He told Carrick: “You were able to admit what you did and yet you changed the meaning of your confession in these hearings.
“The confession was not enforced in a way that would have prevented you from assaulting and raping many other women. These were the first examples of your propensity to commit predatory sexual crimes that came to light.”
He added: “I have no doubt that you are dangerous and that the life sentences imposed on an earlier incident are fully deserved.”
In statements read to the court, the victims described the ongoing trauma resulting from Carrick’s abuse and the lifelong impact his actions had on their lives. The court was told that the woman, who was abused as a child, had difficulty trusting people and forming relationships.
She said: “The public revelation of David’s actions caused me to relive my trauma, which has seriously affected my mental health.
“I do not believe David has any remorse for his actions. He tries to blame his past home life for what he did. Although his actions and depravity are now known, his impact on my life is far from over.”
The woman, who was raped by Carrick during a formative relationship, described the feeling of looking at herself through a “mirror”.
Her experiences had the effect of “rewriting” her understanding of future relationships and creating self-doubt.
He suffered for the life he could have had, saying in his statement: “I didn’t have the chance to learn love like most people do; instead I learned to survive.
“I’m fighting the fear, the memories, the fatigue left behind by the trauma.”
Following the guilty verdicts, 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.
“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.
