Watchdog investigates serving Met officers over David Carrick offences
Police watchdog launches investigations into serving Met officers over force’s failures to stop serial rapist officer David Carrick
- Carrick joined the Met in 2001 and became an armed officer in 2009
- Was sentenced to life in prison in February on 49 charges of sex attacks
A watchdog has launched multiple investigations into the Metropolitan Police’s handling of serial rapist and former officer David Carrick.
Carrick, who joined the Met in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in 2009, was sentenced to life in prison in February on 49 charges of sex attacks, including 24 counts of rape.
The Met has been accused of missing repeated opportunities to catch the depraved rapist.
Today, the Independent Office for Police Conduct said it is making use of a rarely-used power to look into concerns that serving officers repeatedly failed to take appropriate action when serious criminal allegations were made against Carrick.
A review that began in February found there was enough evidence to begin four separate investigations into eight officers and one staff member.
Of the eight, two have since retired and one is working in another force. The other five are still with the Met.
Responding to the move, a spokesman for the force welcomed the IOPC’s probes and said they will provide ‘every assistance’ to them.
The IOPC said it took the ‘unusual’ step over concerns that the Met did not itself identify any conduct matters after a review it asked the force to carry out last year.
David Carrick, who joined the Met in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in 2009, was sentenced to life in prison in February on 49 charges of sex attacks, including 24 counts of rape
OPC regional director Mel Palmer said: ‘David Carrick’s horrendous offending, which occurred over almost two decades while he remained a police officer, shocked the public and cast a dark shadow on policing, and we want to acknowledge the courage of his victims in reporting this offending.
Police vetting has been strengthened after David Carrick and Wayne Couzens cases, Home Office says
Vetting standards for police officers have been strengthened after the ‘sickening’ cases of killer Wayne Couzens and serial rapist David Carrick, the Home Office said.
The College of Policing’s Vetting Code of Practice has been updated, replacing the 2017 Code, to ensure officers who are unfit to serve the public can be rooted out and to make clear chief constables are responsible for holding their forces to high vetting standards.
According to the Home Office, the revised Code sets out 18 expectations for chief officers, including the requirement for re-joiners to be fully re-vetted and for forces to provide all relevant information on an officer transferring to another force.
Updates to the code also provide clarity that failure to hold minimum vetting clearance should lead to dismissal proceedings and that an officer’s vetting should be reviewed following misconduct proceedings that do not end in dismissal.
The Code further makes clear that the Barred and Advisory Lists must be checked as part of the vetting process to ensure that any officers who have previously been dismissed cannot re-join the police.
According to the College of Policing, the barred list shows ‘all officers, special constables and staff members who have been dismissed from policing after investigations under the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2020 or Police (Performance) Regulations 2020’.
The police advisory list is a list of ‘all officers, special constables and staff members who have resigned or retired during an investigation, or who leave before an allegation comes to light’.
The move follows His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services’ report on vetting, misconduct and misogyny in policing.
The revised Code of Practice was laid in Parliament on Thursday and will come into force immediately.
‘The nature and extent of his offending also raised serious questions about whether disciplinary action should have been taken against him when serious allegations were made about his behaviour.
‘The police forces did not record any conduct matters arising from their handling of allegations against Carrick, however we identified indications some officers may have behaved in a manner which would justify disciplinary proceedings.
‘Our review has identified repeated failures to progress conduct investigations when the Met’s Department of Professional Standards (DPS) officers were advised that no further action was being taken by the forces carrying out the criminal investigations into Carrick.’
Some of the counts against Carrick accounted for multiple incidents, meaning that overall he was guilty of at least 85 separate offences, including 71 sexual offences and 48 rapes.
One of the IOPC’s investigations will look at a 2002 allegation of harassment made against Carrick when he was a probationary constable by a former partner.
This allegation was investigated by the Met Police but no referral was made to its DPS – which investigates the conduct of MPS officers and staff – and Carrick was only spoken to by his line manager.
The IOPC will also be looking into a 2016 report of harassment and stalking made by a former partner, which was investigated by Hampshire Constabulary, but no further action was taken in respect of the alleged crimes, but Hampshire made the Met’s DPS aware of the allegations made against Carrick.
The watchdog will probe the handling of a 2019 report of a woman being attacked and dragged out of Carrick’s house by him, which was investigated by Hertfordshire Constabulary. No further action was taken in respect of the alleged crime but Hertfordshire made the Met’s DPS aware of the allegations made against Carrick.
And the IOPC is set to investigate the handling of a February 2021 report of a woman being raped by Carrick, which was initially recorded by Sussex Police and when Carrick was identified as the suspect, due to the location of the alleged offence, it was passed on to Hertfordshire Constabulary.
In the most recent three cases, misconduct investigations were started by the Met’s DPS but were not progressed after forces investigating the allegations against Carrick advised that no further action was being taken.
As a result, Carrick never faced disciplinary action for any of the allegations made and remained a police officer until his arrest in October 2021.
Ms Palmer said the IOPC was ‘deeply concerned’ to find that in two of the cases, Carrick’s name was removed from the Met Police’s system records after the criminal investigations were dropped, which meant that some previous allegations made against him did not show up in the system and officers were unable to build a ‘complete picture of his pattern of offending’.
The Met has been accused of missing repeated opportunities to catch the depraved rapist
She added: ‘These were potentially missed opportunities to pursue gross misconduct investigations against Carrick, which may have led to his dismissal years before he was eventually arrested.
CLICK TO READ MORE: Six women raped and sexually abused by Met cop David Carrick are suing force over failures to stop him – as victim tells how he demanded ‘you must obey me’ during their year-long relationship and claims his behaviour was ‘swept under the table’
‘We will now be investigating the conduct of the officers involved in these cases, and at the end of our investigations we will determine whether they should face disciplinary proceedings.
‘The issue of forces not progressing conduct investigations against officers when no further action is being taken against them criminally is an ongoing area of concern that we highlighted nationally last year as a result of the joint investigation into the super-complaint regarding police perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA).
‘Where there is not enough evidence to pursue a criminal case, misconduct should still be considered. This is because there are different standards, procedures and evidential requirements for disciplinary proceedings compared to criminal investigations.’
The officers involved, some of whom have since retired and one who now works for another force, range in rank from police constable to chief inspector.
Six of the people being investigated were, at the time, from the Met’s DPS.
The watchdog has also recently begun an investigation into concerns that Wiltshire Police officers failed to properly investigate a report made against Carrick in 2016.
David Carrick, pictured here in a court sketch at Southwark Crown Court on February 6, 2020, ahead of the prolific rapist’s sentencing
David Carrick, pictured, was jailed for a minimum of 30 years after admitting to rapes and sexual offences against multiple women
Carrick was a serving police officer at the time of all of the offences and was working for the Met at the time of his arrest
A Met spokesman said today: ‘David Carrick was responsible for the most appalling offences and we are truly sorry for the harm and suffering he caused his victims. He should never have been a police officer.
‘We have acknowledged that serious flaws in our approach meant we did not spot his pattern of abusive behaviour and as a result, we missed opportunities to pursue him through the misconduct process. We deeply regret this.
‘The Met wrote to the IOPC in January 2023 urging them to review our handling of all matters related to Carrick.
‘The IOPC had previously determined that they would not review forces’ overall handling of cases unless evidence of misconduct on the part of individuals had already been identified.
‘However given the seriousness of Carrick’s offending and the understandable degree of public concern it caused, we were anxious that this positon was reconsidered.
‘We welcome the IOPC’s subsequent decision to carry out that review.’
They added: ‘We are absolutely committed to identifying and rooting out those who corrupt our integrity and have no place in policing.
‘We welcome the important role that independent scrutiny has to play in improving our practices in this area as we work determinedly to rebuild trust and confidence in the Met.’
The force said it is also supporting the work of the independent inquiry chaired by Lady Elish Angiolini which is also looking into the extent to which Carrick’s conduct and crimes were known and investigated at the time.
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