David Carrick, serial rapist.
The English justice sentenced to life imprisonment, with more than 30 years of mandatory imprisonment, a former London agent who committed dozens of rapes over 17 years, in a new scandal that aggravates the crisis of confidence in the British police.
Source: AFP
David Carrick, 48, who worked for a special unit for the protection of parliamentarians and foreign diplomats, recognized 24 charges of rape against 12 women between 2003 and 2020, and as many of assaults and illegal detention.
But some concern multiple crimes, adding up to almost fifty rapes.
“You behaved as if you were untouchable,” “trusting that no victim would overcome their shame and fear to come forward,” Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said.
sentenced him to 36 life sentences and will not be able to request parole before serving 30 years and 239 days in prisonhe specified, underlining “a spectacular decline for a man in charge of upholding the law.”
Carrick, who listened to the sentence with his head down and with his eyes closed, used his position to gain the trust of his victims, whom he raped for months, in some cases years.
He called them “slaves”, controlled them financially and isolated them from those close to them. He would lock them in a small closet under the stairs of his house for hours without food.
“He liked to humiliate them and used his professional position to make it clear to them that it was useless to seek help because no one would believe them,” Police Chief Inspector Iain Moor had said.
During the hearings, the prosecution made a heartbreaking recount of their “systematic” attacks on women who “no longer trust the police.”
He met one in a bar in 2003, reassured her that she would be safe with him, before putting a gun to her head and repeatedly raping her.
Another, who she met on a dating website, described a drunken “monster” forcing her to do chores naked.
A third reported that he beat her with a whip, hissed at her like a dog and treated her as an object that “belonged to him and had to obey him”.
– Confidence crisis –
Carrick, removed from the force, admitted “full responsibility for what he did,” said his lawyer, Alisdair Williamson. But according to the judge, he did not express remorse.
This case caused a new shock in the United Kingdom two years after the murder of London executive Sarah Everard, 33, also at the hands of an officer and seriously undermined confidence in the British police.
Scotland Yard Deputy Commissioner Barbara Gray apologized “to the women who suffered at the hands of David Carrick” praising his courage in deciding to testify.
“We should have detected its behavior, and because we didn’t, we missed opportunities to remove it” from the body in time, he added. The case was referred to the internal control body to investigate what happened.
During the hearings it became known that London police had been made aware of several accusations of rape, domestic violence and harassment against the officerdespite which no criminal sanctions or disciplinary measures were imposed on him until his arrest in 2021 following a first complaint.
The once-reputable Metropolitan Police has come under harsh criticism in recent years over the conduct of its officers, especially since the kidnapping, rape and murder of Everard in south London in March 2021 by Wayne Couzens, who also worked with the squad. diplomatic protection.
This case, which shook the United Kingdom in full lockdown against covid-19, revealed that the police hierarchy had not paid attention to the multiple alarm signals about Couzens’ disturbing behavior.
A report published in November revealed deficiencies in the selection and control of London police officers, among whom misogynistic and sexist behavior was reported.
The crisis of confidence is so severe that the The headmistress of a prominent London school asked her teachers to warn female students “not to allow a single police officer near at any time.”
