Women have described in court how they were violently raped, controlled and degraded by an “evil” Metropolitan Police officer who they feared was too “powerful” to be reported for his crimes.
David Carrick was branded a “monster” who carried out a “catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences” when he appeared at London’s Southwark Crown Court, where he is being sentenced for dozens of crimes against 12 women.
The 48-year-old has previously pleaded guilty to 49 charges – including 24 counts of rape – after he was unmasked as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders last month.
Read updates from court as they happened
The court heard that Carrick held a gun to the head of one woman before repeatedly raping her and threatened to use his police baton on another victim.
He also sent one of his victims a photograph of himself with a work-issue firearm, saying: “Remember I am the boss.”
Prosecutor Tom Little KC said Carrick – who was sacked by the Met Police after his guilty pleas – should face a life sentence for his crimes but the case “falls short of meriting” a whole-life order.
He said Carrick’s offences over a 17-year period increased in “frequency” and in “the level of humiliation being inflicted”.
“The reality was that it did not matter who the victim was… he would rape them, sexually abuse or assault them and humiliate them,” the prosecutor said.
The court heard one victim – Darciane Nunes Da Silva – who was raped and sexually assaulted by Carrick had waived her right to anonymity.
In a series of victim impact statements read by the prosecutor, women spoke of the trauma they had suffered from Carrick’s crimes – including some who were left suicidal – and how the case had damaged their trust in police.
“I don’t trust the police any more,” one woman said.
“If anything went wrong I don’t know whether I would want to call the police as I’d worry that they would send a male officer like him.
“The thought of being alone with a male officer makes me very anxious.”
‘Encountered evil’
Another victim said she had been “too frightened” to report Carrick’s crimes after he told her “he was the police, he was the law, and he owned me”.
Meanwhile, a woman who was raped in Carrick’s home after he pointed a gun at her head said she felt she had “encountered evil”.
She told the court: “I distinctively remember his words – ‘come on, you can trust me, I am the safest person you can be around, I am a police officer’.
“I honestly thought he was going to kill me that night, I thought he was going to rape me and kill me and that my life would be over.”
