Can the Met be trusted to root out rapists in its midst?

Is the London Metropolitan Police a criminal organisation? The answer, of course, is no, but it is no longer stupid or unreasonable to ask the question. 

An extraordinary number of bad apples have been found in the Met’s barrel in recent years. And with so much that is rotten lurking among the remaining good apples, the public has a right to know who knew what was going on and why nothing was done to stop it. 

Today, we learned that David Carrick, 48, a firearms officer in the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, has pleaded guilty to 49 sex offences, including 24 instances of rape. Carrick’s colleagues and superiors cannot have been surprised. Accusations had swirled about the 48-year-old for decades. He had been questioned about claims of rape a number of times, but never charged. He was known to those who knew him best as “Bastard Dave”. 

But Carrick is far from the only Met officer to be charged or convicted of rape in recent years. Up to March, 2021, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act, 119 allegations of sexual misconduct by serving police officers were upheld, out of nearly 600 complaints lodged. Since then, numerous other complaints of rape and assault have been filed, of which the Carrick case is only the worst.  

The Met is starting to resemble the Catholic Church, replete with sexual predators who use their position to win the trust of their victims. Those at the top – superintendents and above – who are supposed to root out the miscreants and protect the public are like those bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes who preferred to draw a veil over what was going on lest – Heaven forfend! – it cast the institution in an unfavourable light. 

We all know what will happen next. The Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley (salary £293,000 a year) will express his profound shock and regret over the Carrick case. No stone, he will tell us, will be left unturned in the ongoing effort to rid the service of sexual predators so that we can once again trust his officers as our foremost guarantors of safety and protection in troubled times. 

But we have heard it all before. Even as we listen to his words, no doubt well-intended, how many of us will truly believe that things are about to change? 

Thirty years ago, Ronald Reagan quipped that the most terrifying words in the English language were, “I’m from the Government and I’m here to help”.  Today, the most feared phrase for vulnerable women could more easily be, in the words of PC David Carrick, “I’m a police officer, you’re safe with me”. 

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