David Carrick (born 4 January 1975) is an English serial rapist and former police officer in the Metropolitan Police. He joined the police force in 2001 and worked as an armed officer in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (PaDP) branch from 2009 until his suspension and subsequent sacking from his position in 2021. The case is being examined as part of the broader independent public inquiry being chaired by Lady Elish Angiolini.
Following his arrest, Carrick pleaded guilty to multiple counts of rape between 2002 and 2021. In 2023, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of more than thirty years. He received an additional life sentence in 2025 after two more victims came forward.
Early life and education David Carrick was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on 4 January 1975. At the time of his birth, Carrick's parents, a cleaner and a Royal Artillery soldier, lived at Bulford military camp in Wiltshire. After the birth of his sister, the family moved to nearby Durrington. Carrick went to Durrington comprehensive school. His parents divorced when he was a teenager.
Career and criminality After a short career in the British Army, Carrick became an officer with the Metropolitan Police (Met) in 2001, initially serving as a response officer in South London, before he joined the armed Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (PaDP) branch in 2009.
Although both the Met and other British police forces received multiple complaints about his behaviour, including an investigation for domestic abuse in 2002, Carrick was re-certified to remain an armed police officer in 2017. Work colleagues gave Carrick the nickname 'Bastard Dave', due to his propensity for cruelty.
Between 2003 and 2020, Carrick abused and raped multiple women he met using the dating sites Badoo and Tinder, often in Hertfordshire. Using his job as a police officer to gain their trust and inflate his apparent importance, he developed several abusive relationships. Carrick degraded his victims via physical abuse with a belt, imprisonment in small spaces, urinating on them and rape. In some cases he controlled what his victims wore, when or what they ate, and where they slept. He would sometimes ban them from eating altogether.
In October 2021, a woman reported to the police that Carrick had date raped her a year earlier, deciding to come forward the day after Wayne Couzens, who served in the same unit as Carrick, was sentenced for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
Legal proceedings On 2 October 2021, Carrick was arrested at his home in Hertfordshire. On body-worn video, he is heard to say: "There's no necessity", regarding his arrest. Carrick was suspended from police work.
Forty officers and staff were assigned to Carrick's case, all were required to give written undertakings not to disclose information about the case, in order to stop leaks from reaching the press. Carrick initially pleaded not guilty to all the charges. In May 2022, he was held on remand at HM Prison Belmarsh in south-east London. In December 2022, at the Old Bailey criminal court in Central London, Carrick then pleaded guilty to 49 charges, including 24 of rape; the charges related to twelve female victims. On 16 January 2023, at Southwark Crown Court, he pleaded guilty to four more charges of rape.
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, reacted with a statement that he was "absolutely sickened and appalled". Crown Prosecution Service Chief Prosecutor Jaswant Narwal was quoted as stating "the scale of the degradation Carrick subjected his victims to is unlike anything I have encountered in my 34 years with the Crown Prosecution Service".
In the wake of Carrick's conviction, the Metropolitan Police said the force was re-examining past claims of domestic abuse or sexual offences against its officers and staff, affecting about 1,000 of its 45,000 employees.
Carrick's sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court began on 6 February 2023. The following day, he received 36 life sentences with a minimum term of 30 years plus 239 days, meaning he must serve that time in prison before becoming eligible for parole. He will become eligible for parole on 2 May 2052.
On 8 February 2023, the Attorney General's Office announced that, after "multiple requests", they would be reviewing the sentence under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme. On 3 March, Michael Tomlinson, the Solicitor General for England and Wales, said that he was satisfied the sentencing judge, Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, "gave careful and detailed consideration to all the features of this case" when deciding how much time Carrick would spend in prison, and that the sentencing would not be sent to the Court of Appeal for review.
In July 2023 it was announced that six of Carrick's victims were intending to sue the Metropolitan Police for breaching their human rights by failing to investigate properly.
On 20 July 2023 the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) announced that it was starting four investigations into the way the Metropolitan Police had handled complaints against Carrick. The IOPC also announced that it was conducting a similar investigation into Wiltshire Police. On 18 October 2023, it was reported that a total of 12 serving and former police officers were being investigated for misconduct in relation to the handling of allegations made against Carrick. On 7 June 2024, it was reported that two police officers from Wiltshire Police had been issued with final written warnings over how they had failed to investigate an allegation of sexual abuse made against Carrick in 2016.
On 7 October 2024, it was reported that Carrick had been charged with more offences. These included five counts of indecent assault of a girl under 14 in Salisbury that took place in 1989 and 1990. Carrick was also charged with two counts of rape, one count of sexual assault and one count of coercive and controlling behaviour of another woman between 2014 and 2019 in Stevenage. He appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on 17 October 2024. On 14 November 2024, he appeared at the Old Bailey via videolink from HMP Full Sutton, where he pleaded not guilty to all of the new charges. Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, set a provisional trial date of 3 November 2025 and another pre-trial hearing was due to take place on 14 March 2025. On 14 March 2025, Carrick appeared at the Old Bailey via videolink. Lucraft confirmed 3 November as the trial date for the new charges and a further hearing would take place on 27 June 2025. The trial of Carrick for these charges began on 4 November 2025 at the Old Bailey, and on 19 November he was found guilty on all counts. The next day Carrick was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 30 years.
Outline of victims, offending, offences and sentences The following details regarding the victims and the background to the offences, as well as the specific counts on the indictments and sentences are taken from the sentencing remarks by sentencing judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb.
VictimBackgroundCount/OffencesLawSentenceTJust over a year after becoming an officer (i.e. about 2002), Carrick met T, aged 20, in a bar, inviting her to a house warming party at his flat. T felt reassured when Carrick stated he was the 'safest person' she could be with as he was a police officer. However, there was no party and Carrick held T against her will for hours, raping her vaginally and anally, using violence to hold her down. When T struggled, Carrick put a handgun to her head. She thought she was going to be raped and killed. Carrick forced his penis into T's mouth, biting and bruising her. Attending hospital after the assaults, a nurse remarked that it was not the first time she had heard about a police officer raping someone, when T told her the details she knew of her attacker. The nurse stated it would be difficult to get the case to court as the law protected 'their own'.Count 1False imprisonment Common law Life imprisonmentCount 2Multiple vaginal rapesSection 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956Count 3Count 4Anal rapesCount 5Count 6Indecent assaultSection 14 of the Sexual Offences Act 19569 years' imprisonment (concurrent)MM was a fellow police officer that Carrick met when working on the same team in Spring 2004. M and Carrick had flirted and on returning to his flat, anticipated they would have vaginal sex. However, Carrick ignored her objections and raped M anally, stating it was 'what he did'.Count 1 (main indictment)Anal rapeSection 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 Life imprisonmentFF was a 21-year-old barmaid that Carrick met in 2008, when he was stationed in Barnet. Carrick was 12 years older than her. She became a police officer and they bought a house together. Carrick vaginally and anally raped F many times. F did not think she would be believed if she told anyone what had happened, including police colleagues. Carrick brandished a knife at her when she threatened to leave him, slashing her work shirts.Count 2Vaginal rapeCount 3Anal rapeCount 4Anal rape (at least twice)DD was a member of a martial arts club that Carrick was part of. In 2009, D had become upset at a social event and Carrick took her home. However, he took D to his flat where he got her naked, forcibly putting his fingers inside her vagina.Count 10Assault by penetrationSection 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003NN had attended school with Carrick, and the pair reconnected at a reunion in 2009. The pair then attended another reunion during the August Bank holiday of 2009. N, now married, shared a room with another woman and Carrick, sharing a bed with Carrick. She remonstrated when Carrick kept touching her intimately. As she left the bed to share a different bed with her friend, Carrick dragged her back, holding N's arms behind her back and telling her it would be his 'little secret'. N did not want to do anything with Carrick, resisting, however, Carrick penetrated her vagina and anus with his fingers, then attempted to rape her.Count 5Assault by penetrationCount 6Assault by penetrationCount 7Attempted rapeSection 1 of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981, with section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003SS was a member of a martial arts club that Carrick was part of. After a social evening in 2009, where the pair had been drinking, Carrick charmed her into returning home with him, to spend the night together. However, when at home and naked, Carrick became aggressive, forcibly pinning S on the bed, scaring her and challenging her to overcome him. Carrick attempted to rape her, but could not maintain an erection, which angered him. Encountering S on a later occasion, he made public comments that humiliated her.Count 9Attempted vaginal rapeKK and Carrick knew each other from school and were friends. Having met her in 2015, Carrick told her he was a police officer, with K being attracted to him. After Carrick started to have anal sex with K, she told him to stop as it hurt her. Carrick ignored her, resulting in K being in pain for days afterwards. K did not feel as if she could report the rape to the police, as Carrick was a police officer.Count 8Anal rapeSection 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003BB and Carrick met through a dating app and were in a relationship for six months. At the time they met, B was in a vulnerable position, as, at the time, she was in an unhappy marriage. Carrick was intense with his charm and B quickly agreed to move in with him, being reassured that Carrick was a police officer. Carrick offered B £1,000 a month to be his 'slut'. Carrick did not want the woman to bring her daughter with her when she moved in, however, she did, and the 10-year-old heard some of the abuse her mother suffered, including hearing her being raped.