David Carrick appeared at Southwark Crown Court within the British capital on Monday to plead responsible to 4 counts of rape, false imprisonment and indecent assault referring to a 40-year-old girl in 2003, the UK’s PA Media news company reported.
At the Old Bailey prison courtroom in London final month, Carrick admitted to 43 costs towards 11 different ladies, together with 20 counts of rape, between March 2004 and September 2020, in accordance with PA.
A sequence of latest scandals has make clear what the UK police watchdog known as a tradition of misogyny and racism in London’s police service.
The Metropolitan Police Service Commissioner Cressida Dick resigned from her put up in 2022, after a damning evaluation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct issued 15 suggestions “to change policing practice” within the nation.
London’s Metropolitan Police are actually investigating as many as 1000 intercourse offences and home abuse claims involving roughly 800 of its officers, the drive’s Commissioner Mark Rowley admitted on Monday.
“That’s 1000 cases to look at. Some of those will be things of no concern in the end when we look at them because it will be an argument overheard by neighbours where inquiries show there’s nothing to be concerned about,” Rowley mentioned in an interview with UK media.
“But in there, I’m sad to say, there will be some cases where in the past we should have been more assertive and looked to throw officers out and we haven’t done.”
“We are going to turn all those stones over, we’re going to come to the right conclusions and we’ll be ruthless about rooting out those who corrupt our integrity. You have my absolute assurance on that,” he mentioned.
Sports star’s confession shocks the world
The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) known as Carrick’s case one of many “most shocking” it is ever seen.
“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,” CPS Chief Crown Prosecutor Jaswant Narwal mentioned.
“I commend every single woman who courageously shared their traumatic experience and enabled us to bring this case to court and see justice served,” Narwal continued whereas talking exterior Southwark Crown Court on Monday.
The senior investigating officer within the case, Detective Chief Inspector Iain Moor, known as Carrick’s crimes “truly shocking.”
“The police service is committed to tackling violence against women and girls in all its forms,” Moor mentioned, including “no one is above the law.”
Assistant Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police Barbara Gray additionally apologised on behalf of the police drive to all of the victims.
Gray mentioned on Monday that Carrick “should have been dismissed from the police service a long time ago.”
She later added: “We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behavior and because we didn’t, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organisation. We are truly sorry that Carrick was able to continue to use his role as a police officer to prolong the suffering of his victims.”
“The duration and nature of Carrick’s offending is unprecedented in policing. But regrettably he is not the only Met officer to have been charged with serious sexual offences in the recent past,” she mentioned.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, mentioned: “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.”
Khan commented that work to reform the tradition and requirements of the Met has already began following an interim evaluation and {that a} new, nameless police complaints hotline and anti-corruption crew has lately been established by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley.
“But more can and must be done,” added Khan on Twitter. “It’s vital that all victims of crime have confidence in our police, and we simply must do more to raise standards and empower police leaders to rid the Met and all other police services of those officers who are clearly unfit to serve.”
An establishment ‘in disaster’
Women’s rights organisations known as for an inquiry into the Met following Carrick’s case.
UK home abuse charity Refuge known as Carrick’s crimes “utterly abhorrent.”
“When a man who has been charged with 49 offences, including 24 charges of rape, is a serving police officer, how can women and girls possibly be – or feel – safe,” Refuge tweeted on Monday.
UK organisation End Violence Against Women additionally posted on Twitter: “This is an institution in crisis. That Carrick’s pattern of egregious behaviour was known to the Met and they failed to act speaks more loudly than their empty promises to women.”
“Solidarity with the victims & all who are feeling the weight of the traumatic details being reported,” it added.
The British Women’s Equality Party tweeted: “The Met knew about the allegations for TWENTY years. They did nothing as a serial rapist abused his power. They are complicit. Misogyny will never be stripped from the police without a nationwide, statutory inquiry.”
The Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality and girls’s rights, mentioned on Twitter: “Any act of sexual violence is a disgrace. But it is particularly harmful when, yet again, these crimes have been perpetrated by a person who has additional responsibilities to keep the public safe.”
