Former Met Police officer found guilty of more sexual offences

David Carrick has been found guilty of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl and raping a former partner.

Carrick, 50, was found guilty of five counts of indecent assault, two counts of rape, one of sexual assault and one of controlling or coercive behaviour. The ex-armed officer is already serving a life sentence after being unmasked as one of the UK's worst sex offenders when he admitted crimes against 12 women over 17 years.

He was further accused of molesting a 12-year-old girl in the late 1980s and raping a woman during the course of a toxic relationship more than 20 years later. The Old Bailey heard he abused the young girl for 18 months before she told her mother what was going on and he confessed in a letter which was signed "Dave".

He wrote the girl was "not crazy" and that it was "true" but that he had stopped about four months ago. The second victim met Carrick through a dating website and said she initially found him "charming, witty, (and) sarcastic".

But during their relationship, he became controlling and raped her on multiple occasions. Carrick pleaded not guilty to two charges of rape, one of sexual assault and coercive and controlling behaviour towards the woman between 2014 and 2019, and five counts of sexual assault relating to the girl in the late 1980s.

He didn't give evidence at his trial, but denied the allegations, claiming sex with the woman was consensual and the child accuser had lied. The court heard the latest allegations were made after Carrick pleaded guilty to 71 instances of sexual violence against 12 different women over a period spanning 17 years.

Prosecutor Tom Little KC told jurors Carrick must have felt "invincible" as a police officer for two decades until everything came "crashing around his ears" in 2022. He was sentenced to a minimum term of 32 years in prison in 2023 in a case that caused widespread public anger after it emerged repeated opportunities to stop his offending had been missed while he was serving as a police officer.

He joined the Met in 2001 before becoming an armed officer in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection unit in 2009. Carrick was finally brought to justice after one of his victims came forward after another armed Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens, was sentenced for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

Offending dates back 35 years The latest convictions show Carrick's offending dates back 35 years, long before he became a police officer. Senior Crown prosecutor Shilpa Shah said the evidence showed Carrick was a child abuser from an early age and that his sexual offending "escalated" in adulthood over decades.

She said: "I would describe David Carrick as a manipulative, controlling and abusive man who created a facade for the rest of the world so that no one would realise what he was doing behind closed doors. "He was aggressive, abusive, violent, and yet he appeared to be charming and charismatic.

He didn't count on his victims coming forward and exposing him as they have and I'd like to thank them for doing so." Detective Superintendent Iain Moor, of Hertfordshire Constabulary, said the future could have been very different if Carrick's confession was handed to police in 1990. "Hopefully, people are starting to feel more confident to come forward and report matters to the police.

I think there's still more work to do," he said..