Met cop who was raped by David Carrick says ‘he is a monster, and now he needs to pay’

A Metropolitan Police officer who was raped by ‘monster’ David Carrick nearly 20 years ago says he ‘needs to pay’ for his crimes.

The victim, who is being called Michelle to protect her anonymity, says was afraid to report the attack because the ‘male-dominated culture’ of the force. She feared being known as the college who ‘alleges rape’ in a work environment that was ‘a bit Life on Mars‘ – referencing the BBC One series about police work in the 1970s.

Carrick, a former Met cop who has been unmasked as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders, is set to be jailed for attacking a dozen women over an 18-year period. His two-day sentencing begins today at Southwark Crown Court.

He has admitted 24 counts of rape, as well as charges of sexual assault, controlling and coercive behaviour and false imprisonment. His  ‘truly sickening’ has forced the Met to issue an apology.

‘The culture of the Met then and for some time afterwards was quite male-dominated. It was a bit Life on Mars,’ Michelle told the BBC in an interview published this morning.

She explained how she Carrick, 48, raped her in 2004, but she never told her colleagues about the attack, citing a work environment that seemingly sexualised women.

She recalled how male officers would use a ‘Property of the Met’ rubber stamp to mark ‘various parts of the anatomy’ on female officers.

Michelle said the stamping was done in a ‘laughing, joking way’ but noting that ‘most officers just went along with it.’

She explained that female officers were apparently hazed by their male colleagues.

Michelle said they were driven to blue-light calls and recalled once being shut in the boot of a patrol car ‘for half a shift as a joke’.

‘That’s what they did to a lot of the females as they joined,’ she told the broadcaster. 

Michelle said her rape was a ‘traumatic experience’ that completely changed her life and made it hard for her to trust or get close to men.

She plans to attend court for Carrick’s sentencing, telling the BBC: ‘He’s had his many years of doing what he shouldn’t do, being a monster. He is a monster, and now he needs to pay.’ 

Carrick is due in court today and will be sentenced in a two-day hearing that Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray said would provide more detail about his ‘cruel and abusive’ offences.

Carrick, who served in the Army before joining the Met, admitted 49 criminal charges, but some of the attacks are multiple incident counts, meaning they relate to more than 80 sexual offences, including at least 48 rapes against 12 women.

He will also be sentenced for nine counts of sexual assault, five counts of assault by penetration, three counts of coercive and controlling behaviour, and three counts of false imprisonment.

Carrick’s offences also include two counts of attempted rape, one count of attempted sexual assault by penetration, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of indecent assault.

The case prompted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to promise police reforms after it emerged the force was informed of nine incidents – including allegations of rape, domestic violence and harassment – between 2000 and 2021.

Carrick, who joined the force in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in 2009, faced no criminal sanctions or misconduct findings.

Police chiefs across England and Wales have since been asked to have all officers checked against national police databases by the end of March.

He denied a further count of rape in September 2020 relating to a 13th woman, whose allegation triggered the investigation, and the Crown Prosecution Service decided it was not in the public interest to proceed to trial on the charge.

On September 4 2020, Carrick told her he was a firearms officer nicknamed ‘Bastard Dave’, showed her his warrant card and boasted of meeting famous people, including then-prime minister Boris Johnson, in the course of his work, a court previously heard.

The first victim of his victims to reveal her identity, Darciane Nunes Da Silva, told the Sunday People last week that she wants Carrick to spend the next 40 years behind bars.

Carrick’s crimes are set to form part of the independent inquiry looking at the murder of Sarah Everard, who was raped and strangled to death by then serving Met officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.

On Sunday, the Met’s Assistant Commissioner repeated the apology to Carrick’s victims, saying the force ‘let them down’ and the sex predator ‘should not have been a police officer’.

In a statement, Ms Gray said: ‘I am truly sorry for the harm and devastation he has caused them.

‘We let them down and we failed to identify a man in the ranks of the Metropolitan Police Service who carried out the most awful offences.

‘He should not have been a police officer.’

Ms Gray added: ‘In the weeks since he pleaded guilty, we have spoken about our genuine and urgent commitment to address the systemic failings that have been identified by our own reviews, by those of His Majesty’s Inspectorate and Baroness Casey.

‘We are determined to root out those who corrupt our integrity. That work is already under way.’