Six women to sue Met over 'failures to stop rapist cop David Carrick'
10 July 2023, 10:52
Six victims of former cop David Carrick are planning to sue the Metropolitan Police claiming several opportunities to stop him were missed.
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Carrick was handed 36 life sentences after admitting a 17-year reign of terror against a dozen women.
He joined the Metropolitan Police in 2001, with his crimes spanning between 2003 and 2020.
Six of his victims are now working with a lawyer over claims that the force breached the Human Rights Act by missing several opportunities to catch him, according to the Times.
Their lawyer, Debaleena Dasgupta, from the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), said: "These women came to me horrified by what they learnt — only via the press — about the opportunities missed in this case.
"They wanted to know what they could do to help prevent the same thing happening to someone else."
Criminal behaviour by Carrick was reported to the police nine times over the two decades before he was arrested.
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Speaking on the day of Carrick’s sentencing, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: "He should not have been a police officer.
"The treatment that he subjected his victims to was truly degrading and inhumane.
"There were many signs that we should have joined together, he should have been rooted out during his career as a police officer.
"It’s upsetting to be stood here talking about this and I apologise again to the victims and indeed I apologise to the women of London, many of whom will be troubled and their trust in policing will be shaken."
A Met spokeswoman confirmed that the force had received the letters of claim. She said following Carrick’s conviction the Met had “apologised to all his victims and more widely to women across London who felt we had let them down by failing to earlier deal with his sickening offending”.
