Nine chances the Met Police missed to stop rapist David Carrick in his tracks

In July 2021, the day after Wayne Couzens admitted kidnapping, raping and murdering Sarah Everard, a women went into a police station in Sussex to make a complaint about an

unrelated matter. During the course of her interview, she also divulged to officers that she too had been raped by a Metropolitan Police officer in the past. She

explained that the attack had taken place at the officer’s home in Stevenage, so the matter was immediately passed to Hertfordshire Constabulary to investigate. The officer

in question was David Carrick, a serving member of the Metropolitan Police’s armed Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection unit who has now admitted more than 80 sex offences

spanning almost 20 years. It was not the first time a complaint about him had been made. Carrick was arrested on suspicion of rape three days later and questioned at length

about the allegation. Because he was a serving police officer, Hertfordshire Constabulary also informed his bosses at Scotland Yard, who had to make a decision on what to do

about him. Given the intense scrutiny the Metropolitan Police was facing over the Couzens’ revelations, it would have been understandable for the force to suspend Carrick

and take a closer look at his background. But instead, extraordinarily, Scotland Yard simply placed him on restricted duties and waited for the outcome of the criminal

investigation. When a few weeks later the traumatised victim decided to withdraw the complaint, as many sex abuse survivors do, the Metropolitan Police determined that

Carrick had no disciplinary case to answer and cleared him to return to duties.