Met officers face disciplinary proceedings over ‘failures’ linked to Carrick

Four Metropolitan Police officers and a member of staff are facing disciplinary proceedings over their alleged failures to take action against serial rapist David Carrick.

A detective sergeant will face a gross misconduct hearing while the other four will face misconduct meetings over claims they breached professional standards, watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said.

All the officers worked in the Met’s internal standards department, the Directorate of Professional Standards.

Former Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick was jailed for life in February 2023 after being unmasked as one of the UK’s worst sex offenders.

He was finally brought to justice after nearly 20 years of offending because one of his victims was so moved by a victim impact statement made by the mother of Sarah Everard, who was raped and murdered by another Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens.

The IOPC said that a report of assault and harassment was made against Carrick in 2002, and he was spoken to by his line manager but no referral was made to the force’s internal standards department.

Two inspectors would have faced a misconduct meeting over this if they had not already retired.

In 2016 another report of assault and harassment was made, which was investigated by Hampshire Police as a potential crime.

No charge was brought, but the Met’s internal standards department failed to investigate potential misconduct.

The IOPC said two officers should face misconduct meetings, one of whom has since moved to City of London Police.

In 2019, a report of assault was made and was investigated by Hertfordshire Constabulary, no charge was brought and again the Met’s internal standards department was told.

Two chief inspectors were told to go through a “reflective practice review process” to consider their failures to investigate Carrick for potential misconduct.

Finally in 2021 a report of rape and sexual assault was made against Carrick, but no criminal charge was brought after an investigation by Hertfordshire.

An internal investigation by the Met found that there was not enough evidence to prove misconduct, and so Carrick had no case to answer.

But the IOPC said that a detective sergeant should face a gross misconduct hearing for allegedly failing to supervise that investigation properly, and a detective constable and a police staff member should face misconduct meetings.

IOPC regional director Mel Palmer said: “Our thoughts continue to be with all of the women who were victims of this serial predator.

“Our investigations into alleged failures to investigate reports made against David Carrick were comprehensive and identified several missed opportunities to pursue misconduct investigations against him.

“In all cases we identified that officers failed to properly explore, investigate or oversee the misconduct investigations against Carrick, who never faced any disciplinary proceedings despite being the subject of serious criminal allegations on multiple occasions.

“Had these matters been progressed appropriately, Carrick may have potentially faced gross misconduct proceedings and been dismissed from the force well before he was eventually arrested.

“Four officers and a member of police staff will now face disciplinary proceedings, including one officer who will face a gross misconduct hearing, while two more former officers would have faced disciplinary meetings had they not retired from the force.”