Every moment the Met failed to stop Carrick
We've compiled two decades of missed opportunities
Morning – here’s what we’ve spied in the capital on Tuesday, February 7, 2023:
👩⚖️ Justice will soon be served to former Met officer and serial rapist David Carrick, whose sentencing hearing began on Monday. The case of Carrick, who used his position to attack and humiliate 12 women over two decades, has reignited scrutiny of the Met’s ability to vet and investigate its own officers.
Carrick’s two-day hearing continues today. As his victims await the verdict, the Spy has compiled a timeline of the litany of missed opportunities in the case. Your regular briefing resumes after.
The missed chances to stop Carrick:
2001: Carrick passes vetting procedures to join the Met despite allegations of malicious communications and burglary against an ex-partner the previous year.
2002: Still on probation, Carrick is accused of harassment and assault by another former partner, leading to him being investigated by his own force. The case is dropped and no criminal charges are brought.
2003: Carrick repeatedly rapes the first of 12 known victims that he is eventually convicted of violently assaulting two decades later.
2004: The Met are once again called to a “domestic incident” involving Carrick, but “no criminal allegations were made”. The same year Carrick rapes a woman.
2006-2009: Carrick rapes and abuses a woman on several occasions.
2009: Carrick passes checks to become a firearms officer, becoming an armed police presence at parliamentary, government and diplomatic premises. That year, Hertfordshire police receive a domestic abuse report about Carrick, but neither party make a complaint and no charges are brought. That year Carrick sexually assaults two women and attempts to rape another.
2015: Carrick rapes a woman.
2016: Hampshire police investigate Carrick for harassment and stalking but he is not arrested. That year Carrick rapes and sexually abuses a woman he met online.
2017: Carrick passes a re-vetting procedure, despite the investigation against him just a year prior. That year Carrick is also spoken to by Thames Valley police after he is thrown out of a nightclub in Reading for being drunk. The matter is not referred to the Met. That year Carrick rapes two women.
2018: Carrick sexually assaults a woman he met online.
2019: Carrick is accused of grabbing a woman by the neck. Hertfordshire police take no further action but the case is referred to the Met, who give him “words of advice” but decide against a misconduct process.
2020: Carrick rapes a woman he met online. He is verbally and physically aggressive, urinates on her and uses sex toys against her will.
Jul 2021: Carrick is arrested on suspicion of raping the woman and is placed on restricted duties.
Sep 2021: The criminal probe against Carrick is dropped.
Oct 2021: After another woman comes forward, detectives from Hertfordshire police arrest Carrick once again and the Met suspend him from duty. Only now is a full review undertaken into Carrick.
Oct 2021-2022: Publicity around the case leads to more women coming forward with allegations against Carrick. They had previously held back for fear they wouldn’t be believed due to his position.
Dec 16 2022: Carrick pleads guilty to 43 offences at the Old Bailey. Only now is his pay stopped by the Met.
Jan 16 2023: Carrick pleads guilty to a total of 49 rape and sexual offences against 12 women across two decades. Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley apologises to his victims and reveals that the force is investigating a further 800 officers over sexual and domestic abuse offences.
Jan 17 2023: The Met officially sack Carrick at a misconduct hearing. Home secretary Suella Braverman announces Carrick’s case will also be considered by the inquiry looking into the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens.
Feb 6, 2023: Carrick’s two-day sentencing hearing begins.
Sources: Sky News, The Mirror, The Guardian, BBC [1][2][3]
And on that inquiry – the first report, which will focus on the missed chances to stop Couzens, is expected by the summer.
🗳 Another clue as to who the Conservatives could pick to take on Sadiq Khan for mayor in 2024. Nick Rogers, a 37 year-old Conservative London Assembly member, says he’d be up for running as potentially the party’s youngest ever candidate. His pitch? He’ll address the “millennial condition” by introducing a “manifesto for renters” – though no detail yet as to what that would actually entail.
Rogers’ announcement comes amid wider soul-searching for Conservatives in the capital, after they lost 104 council seats in the 2022 local elections. The problem is basically that the party has given up trying to win over Londoners, argues Mark Pack, president of the Liberal Democrats.
⚡️ Strikes may hit London’s electricity grid next month as workers at a power company prepare to vote on a walkout. The issue at hand is of course pay, with Unite saying the 1,300 staff at UK Power Networks Holdings Ltd are unhappy with what’s been offered so far. The news comes amid a general sense of anxiety around the capital’s grid. Developers have been warned of a potential 13-year ban on new homes in west London due to capacity issues in the area. And it’s not just a winter issue – during the scorching days of July last year, surging electricity demand meant the capital had to pay a record amount of money to avoid a blackout.
⛪️ A bishop who sold his Camberwell congregation fake Covid protections kits has been handed a one-year jail term, suspended for two years. Bishop Climate Wiseman started selling £91 kits consisting of red yarn and bottles of oil in the first lockdown in 2020, claiming they would protect against the virus and stop the need to socially distance. A jury found him guilty of fraud in December last year in a trial that used evidence from an undercover BBC investigation.
🐈 Finally – a cat has been rescued from a London Underground tunnel after a two-week operation. The alarm was raised over Mr Jingles when Tube drivers spotted a white cat in tunnels between Pimlico and Victoria, and station employees heard meows at night. He’s now made it back to his foster family – though it’s not entirely clear how Mr Jingles avoided a run-in with a train…