REVEALED: Met rapist David Carrick sent selfies posing with his gun to random woman as it emerges detectives are probing claims he began sex attacks a decade before joining Scotland Yard – as Ministers back calls to strip him of £22,000 pension
- Carrick committed 48 rapes while working as an officer between 2003 and 2020
- But a woman has since claimed he attacked her ten years before joining the Met
- Authorities are now encouraging any other potential victims to come forward
A Metropolitan Police officer who used his position to carry out 48 rapes against 12 women may have started his sadistic crime spree when he was a teenager, detectives believe – as calls mount to strip him of his gold-plated pension.
David Carrick, 47, known to colleagues as ‘B***ard Dave’, this week admitted carrying out a total of 80 offences while serving with the force between 2003 and 2020.
However another woman has since claimed Carrick, officially one of Britain’s worst ever sex offenders, attacked her 30 years ago – a decade before he became a policeman, reports the Times.
Authorities are encouraging any other potential victims to come forward, particularly as there is a six-year break in his known offending – between 2009 and 2015 – which they believe will soon reveal further crimes.
It comes as selfies taken by Carrick of him showing off a firearm emerged today, after he sent them to a random woman who he had messaged by mistake in a ‘bizarre’ wrong number mix-up.
David Carrick, 47, known to police colleagues as ‘B***ard Dave’ , this week admitted carrying out a total of 80 offences while serving with the force between 2003 and 2020 (Pictured: Selfie taken by Carrick of him showing off a firearm, which emerged today)
Pressure is mounting from MPs on both sides of the aisle for a dedicated inquiry into how Carrick (pictured) was allowed to act with impunity for almost 20 years
The images show Carrick grinning while staring into the camera below and holding the weapon with his right hand.
The unnamed recipient said Carrick had sent her a message thinking she was another woman, but that when she informed him it was the wrong number, he sent her the pictures anyway and asked if he was her ‘type’. The woman branded the whole experience ‘bizarre’.
It comes as pressure is mounting from MPs on both sides of the aisle for a dedicated inquiry into how Carrick was allowed to act with impunity for almost 20 years – despite being a suspect in a domestic incident a year before joining the Met and the subject of repeated complaints about predatory behaviour.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan is also working to ensure Carrick does not receive his gold-plated pension, which analysts predict would see him earn around £22,000 a year when he turns 60.
Fears that Carrick began attacking women in his teens have been supported by his own mother, who revealed yesterday how she reported him herself following a ‘serious allegation’ in his formative years.
She said he had a ‘normal-ish’ childhood and did ‘fairly well’ at school, but that he would regularly bring home girlfriends, so often that ‘I didn’t bother asking about them in the end’.
Jean split with the officer’s father when he was a teenager and is now in a relationship with another man who has moved into the family home.
Speaking from her house in Salisbury, she told The Guardian that she raised a concern about him when he was a teenager.
She said: ‘After that, he changed. He just sort of kept himself to himself and away from the family. And that’s when I had my two other children.
‘I didn’t know this until recently, but my other son told me: ‘He’s a horrible man. He used to kick me on the back of the legs.”
Carrick joined the Army aged 19 before serving tours in Cyprus and the Falklands in 1996.
Jean added: ‘He always wanted to join the Army. I think he wanted to travel around. It could also be because he wanted to carry a weapon.’
Meanwhile, Carrick’s former school friend revealed how he ‘treated women like c**p’.
He told the newspaper: ‘When we were younger I thought he was a cool lad. A lot of people liked him.
‘He was one of those lads who was good at everything. I think he had good grades and he was very much a sports person.
‘He was very popular with the women; he was a good-looking lad, he was a fit lad.’
Rapist cop David Carrick sent random woman selfies of him holding firearm in ‘bizarre’ wrong number mix-up
A woman claims she had a ‘bizarre’ wrong number interaction with David Carrick – in which he sent her photos posing with a gun.
The woman, who has asked for her identity to be kept anonymous, says the criminal cop messaged her in 2011.
She claims the text was addressed to another woman so she responded to suggest he had the wrong number.
But the woman alleges that Carrick, now 48, then breezed past the mix-up and introduced himself – and sent photos.
Carrick poses with gun in image sent to woman via text
Two, which the woman has retained, shows the disgraced Met officer posing in uniform and with a firearm.
The woman says she has since lost the text messages but, upon hearing about his conviction, decided to speak out.
She said: ‘I remember receiving this text from a random number addressed to another woman.
‘Obviously who ever it was had the wrong number, so I texted them back saying my name.
‘Then, they introduced themselves as David Carrick, a police officer from Stevenage.
‘He followed this up with two photos of him posing in his uniform holding a machine gun and asked me if he was my type – it was quite bizarre.
‘When I saw his face on the news, I instantly recognised him from the photos he sent all those years ago.
‘I had saved them in my emails because he was a bit nasty to me and I was worried about any repercussions coming from the conversation.
‘Seeing what’s come out about him now is frightening.’
The woman claims Carrick sent a follow up text asking ‘Am I your type?’ after sending the snaps.
The woman claims she replied to say she was from Scotland, to which he replied, ‘Oh I don’t like Scottish people’ – and the two never spoke again.
Carrick was yesterday dismissed from the Met following a misconduct hearing.
The scale of the former armed officer’s depravity was revealed on Monday after he admitted the last of the charges against him.
Carrick, who used his role to instill fear, admitted dozens of rape and sexual offences against 12 women.
He pleaded guilty to 49 offences across two decades and will be sentenced at a later date.
The Met has apologised for failings over its handling of Carrick.
But the friend said he ‘quite quickly saw things I didn’t like’ shortly after Carrick bought a house in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in 2008.
He added: ‘He would use his being in the police and he would use his power to get his way. He would start arguments and then say he’s in the police and throw his weight around a little bit too much.
‘So I used to say to him: ‘Look, Dave, you can’t be doing that, you’re a police officer.”
The friend also recalled at least three occasions in which Carrick flashed his warrant card to intimidate others.
It comes as shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper is leading calls for a fresh inquiry into Carrick’s crimes and the missed opportunities to root him out – after it was revealed the Met will not be investigating officers who handled complaints against Carrick as they are all retired.
The police watchdog IOPC said yesterday: ‘We also received information from the MPS [Metropolitan police service], identified in its review, relating to three other incidents in 2004, 2019 and 2021, involving allegations against Carrick.
‘From the information we’ve been provided with so far, we have had no cause to consider using our power of initiative to call these matters in.’
But Labour MP Harriet Harman told the Commons yesterday that those in management who allowed Carrick to climb the ranks and become an armed officer needed to face disciplinary action.
She said: ‘It is about those individuals who are in senior and management positions in the Met who seemed to think that it was all right for Carrick to be given extra responsibilities and promoted, and we need transparency about that.’
Ms Harman was backed by Tory MPs, including Lee Anderson, Philip Hollobone and James Daly.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has insisted any probe into Carrick will fall under the pre-existing Angiolini Inquiry, which is investigating how PC Wayne Couzens was able to abduct, rape and murder Sarah Everard.
She also said a review would aim to make it easier to fire police officers involved in wrongdoing more rapidly.
Ms Braverman added: ‘It’s now for the Metropolitan police to demonstrate that they have an effective plan in place to rapidly improve their vetting processes.’
But shadow home sec Yvette Cooper branded Ms Braverman’s response as ‘weak’.
She said: ‘Given the scale of the problems, not just in this case but in previous cases as well, her statement is very weak and it shows a serious lack of leadership on something that is so grave and affects confidence in policing as well as serious crimes.’
Labour MP Diana Johnson, the chair of the home affairs select committee, said: ‘The Carrick case is yet another appalling example of systemic failures within the police to confront male violence against women and the sexist culture that fosters it. In short, we are witnessing the consequences of institutionalised sexism.’
Meanwhile former victims’ commissioner Dame Vera Baird told the BBC: ‘The Metropolitan police seem incapable of not employing – and furthermore retaining – some quite evil people.
‘He appears to have been reassessed since the murder of Sarah Everard, since the Charing Cross misogyny scandal came out.
‘Where exactly is the change in culture that we have all been told would occur after that catastrophic death now a couple of years ago?’
It comes after it was revealed how Carrick used his warrant card to make women feel they were safe with him.
It means that although he was off duty when he committed his crimes, it could be argued that they are still linked to his job as a police officer.
The firearms officer took delight in humiliating his victims, whom he branded his ‘slaves’
It is this fact London Mayor Sadiq Khan hopes will prevent Carrick from getting at least a large part of his pension, as officers can be stripped of 65 per cent of them if their crimes can be linked to their work.
As an elite parliamentary protection officer, Carrick will have likely been on a salary of £43,000. Alongside the Met’s gold-plated pension scheme, he would get £22,000 per year from the age of 60, according to wealth management firm Quilter.
However Scotland Yard said Home Office rules made it unlikely that he could be stripped of his gold-plated, final-salary pension.
Despite this, Mr Khan is pursuing a forfeiture action, backed by Ms Braverman.
Home Office guidelines state that ‘forfeiture’ applications to remove a police pension can be made when an officer has been convicted of a criminal offence committed in connection with their service which leads to a serious loss of confidence in policing.
Home Office minister Robert Jenrick backed the move today, arguing it was clear Carrick’s offending was linked to his position in the capital’s police force.
Mr Jenrick told Sky News: ‘The forfeiture of the pension is a matter for the Mayor of London but we support his efforts to remove that pension, if indeed that is what he chooses to do.
Detective Chief Inspector Iain Moor from the Bedfordshire, Cambridge and Hertfordshire major crime unit (2nd right) and Jaswant Narwal Chief Crown Prosecutor, CPS Thames and Chiltern (right) speaking to the media outside Southwark Crown Court
‘This is one of the most egregious cases of police misconduct in the history of the Met, perhaps in the history of British policing. This disgusting individual should not benefit from his years serving in the Metropolitan Police.’
He later went further to say he and the Home Secretary ‘do not expect David Carrick to receive his pension’.
‘There are very strong arguments for doing so as although some of this activity may have occurred outside of David Carrick’s exact role, it was linked to it,’ Mr Jenrick told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Former home secretary Priti Patel said London Mayor Khan and Home Secretary Suella Braverman should do everything possible to deny Carrick his entire pension.
‘If he left prison with a pension pot of hundreds of thousands, with the majority coming from his employer, that would be ludicrous and unjustifiable,’ she said.
Former victims commissioner Dame Vera added: ‘There should be some room for sensible discretion here because in instances like this of course it would be appropriate to take a pension pot away from such a serious offender. What does it matter if he was on duty or not? I hope his victims will be compensated without having to go to court.’
Freedom of information data shows that just 42 applications for forfeiture of police pensions were approved in the five years to November 2022.
Carrick appearing in Southwark Crown Court, where he pleaded guilty to 24 counts of rape
Police officers who face losing their pensions after being convicted of serious crimes can go to the High Court to fight their case.
A senior police source said forfeitures happened only in extreme cases such as national security breaches, but Carrick’s abuse of his position to facilitate offending meant there could be a strong case to seize his employer contributions.
A spokesman for the Mayor’s office for policing and crime in London said it would pursue forfeiture, arguing: ‘It is clear that PC Carrick committed offences in connection with his service as a member of a police force.’
The office is expected to discuss the case with the Met, then apply to the Home Secretary for a certificate of forfeiture for the pension to be taken away. Mrs Braverman said she supported the move but, even if the application was successful, Carrick would keep the 35 per cent of the pension pot he contributed himself.
He is understood to have been letting out his home in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, to a family while on remand at more than £1,200 a month.
Mr Khan said yesterday: ‘I am absolutely sickened and appalled by the truly abhorrent offences that David Carrick has committed.
‘Londoners will be rightly shocked that this man was able to work for the Met for so long, and serious questions must be answered about how he was able to abuse his position as an officer in this horrendous manner.
‘I remain in close contact with the new Met Commissioner about this case and the work to reform the culture and standards of the Met has already started with Baroness Louise Casey’s interim review now complete and a new, anonymous police complaints hotline and anti-corruption team recently established by Sir Mark Rowley.’
It comes after Carrick pleaded guilty to abusing and torturing 12 victims over nearly two decades.
The firearms officer took delight in humiliating his victims, whom he branded his ‘slaves’ – with some locked in a small cupboard under the stairs for ten hours without food. He hit one with a belt, and forced some of his victims to clean his house naked.
The PC was able torture and abuse women for 17 years concerns being raised within the police force nine times before his arrest.
Today, the Met apologised for its failure to stop Carrick – as No 10 warned trust in the police had been ‘shattered’.
Sir Mark Rowley said: ‘We failed in two respects. We failed as investigators, where we should have been more intrusive and joined the dots on this repeated misogyny over a couple of decades.
‘And, as leaders, our mindset should have been more determined to root out such a misogynist.
‘These failures are horrific examples of the systemic failures that concern me and were highlighted by Baroness Casey in her recent review.
‘I do know an apology doesn’t go far enough, but I do think it’s important to acknowledge our failings and for me to say I’m sorry.
‘I apologise to all of David Carrick’s victims. I also want to say sorry to all of the women across London who feel we’ve let them down.’
Carrick, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to 43 charges at the Old Bailey in December and the final six at Southwark Crown Court on Monday.
They include 24 counts of rape against nine women, but some of the charges are multiple incident counts, meaning they relate to at least 48 rapes.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb remanded Carrick in custody ahead of sentencing over two days from February 6.
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