A victim of a serial rapist police officer who is set to be jailed after admitting 24 counts of rape described how his crimes "destroyed" her husband and their marriage.
David Carrick, 48, has been revealed as one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders after he admitted to the rape charges - as well as counts of sexual assault, controlling and coercive behaviour and false imprisonment.
Today was the first of a two-day sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court in London. This morning the court heard how Carrick carried out a “catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences… on multiple victims”.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC, opening the case at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, read out a number of victim impact statements, with one written by Carrick's fifth victim detailing the devastating impact his crimes had on her life.
The woman told how she engaged in overtly sexual behaviour following the incident, feeling it was the only way to take control of her feelings.
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In the statement read by Mr Little the woman wrote: "From the moment I was told ’shh this is our little secret'; I found myself changed, I went into survival mode.
Carrick has admitted dozens of rape and sexual offences against 12 women (REX/Shutterstock)
He used his position as a police officer to put fear into his victims (REX/Shutterstock)“This event appeared to have triggered a reaction in me that I could not control. I had been controlled... I wanted to have the ability to control situations back; however I was then unable to limit that control."
The woman said she found she could control what she put into her body and subsequently shrunk from a size 14 to a size 6.
She smoked more than she ever had and began to binge drink, as well as going out to nightclubs wearing clothes that "did not befit" her age in order to get attention.
"I danced with men and women very intimately. I found that I could control men with what I wore, what I said and what I wrote," she said.
“I began to read erotic fiction and write pornographic stories. I sent them to men. I sent pictures of my intimate areas and left myself vulnerable and open to abuse.
“I started relationships with men and women that I did not want. All I wanted was to be noticed and to have friends and be liked."
She said she would lie to her husband about what she was doing and began to live off adrenaline and nicotine.
Despite hearing a voice in her head "asking [her] what the hell [she] was doing", she said the need to be liked by other people make it "impossible to stop".
Carrick's home in Hertfordshire (PA)"I was manipulating my husband to let me go out and meet people. To not get caught, I would turn accusations around to make him think he was in the wrong, affecting his mental health.
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“As time went on, I was split in two. I had one version of me trying to get caught, so it would all stop. The other was trying to make myself feel alive, convinced that this was the best way to live."
The victim then described how she went to a church and in an attempt to make herself feel better, was baptised. But this only made her feel worse, and increasingly guilty, she said.
“My anxiety levels were extremely high trying to remember all of the lies I had told, to my friends and husband... Then I was advised to come clean.”
The victim said telling her husband “everything” had “destroyed him” as well as her marriage. She was left feeling like she had “lost control again”, she said.
“For the weeks that followed I endured self-destructive thoughts caused by the knowledge that I had devastated my husband. I was smoking at least 40 a day and sent at least 2,000 texts a day to people, seeing who I could control.
“Then my husband had had enough and was going to leave me.”
An artists impression of Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick appearing at Southwark Crown Court (Julia Quenzler / SWNS)The victim's statement detailed how this prompted her to attempt to take her own life, as she was convinced her husband and their children would be better off without her.
“That’s when I realised I truly was at rock bottom. I had no control over my life and had this false belief that how I was behaving was fun. I had a belief in God before all of this, but I thought I could get control of everything myself.”
Since the incident with Carrick, she said she had endured self harm by starving herself, “poisoning” herself and distancing herself from friends so that she ended up alone.
She said she eventually “gave up” on controlling everything and asked her husband how she could make him stay.
She subsequently gave up smoking, promised she would never lie again, and went to a psychotherapist in an attempt to figure out how she could improve her relationship with her husband.
Her faith had increased and she had taken on an active role in the church, she said. She had turned on her phone tracking so that her husband could see where she was - in a bid to increase transparency and show him she had nothing to hide anymore.
Addressing the courtroom on Monday, Mr Little described Carrick's offending as a "catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences perpetrated on multiple victims".
“The reality was that it did not matter who the victim was… the reality was, if he had the opportunity, he would rape them, sexually abuse or assault them and humiliate them," he said.
“Some of his victims were either appreciably older or younger than him – they were all, in their own ways, vulnerable.”
Mr Little said Carrick held a black handgun to another victim’s head before telling her “you are not going” as he raped her, while he shut another woman under a cupboard under the stairs and would whistle at her "like a dog".
Carrick remained emotionless with his head bowed and eye closed while Mr LIttle recounted his horrific crimes.
Carrick, who served in the Army before joining the Met, admitted 49 criminal charges, but some of the attacks are multiple incident counts, meaning they relate to more than 80 sexual offences, including at least 48 rapes against 12 women.
He will also be sentenced to nine counts of sexual assault, five counts of assault by penetration, three counts of coercive and controlling behaviour, and three counts of false imprisonment.
Carrick has pleaded guilty to 49 offences, across two decades (REX/Shutterstock)
Carrick will be sentenced by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb in a two-day hearing (Mirrorpix)Carrick's offences also include two counts of attempted rape, one count of attempted sexual assault by penetration, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of indecent assault.
He denied a further count of rape in September 2020 relating to a 13th woman, whose allegation triggered the investigation, and the Crown Prosecution Service decided it was not in the public interest to proceed to trial on the charge.
Carrick's crimes are set to form part of the independent inquiry looking at the murder of Sarah Everard, who was raped and strangled to death by then-serving Met officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.
Yesterday, the Met's Assistant Commissioner repeated the apology to Carrick's victims, saying the force "let them down" and the sex predator "should not have been a police officer".
"We are determined to root out those who corrupt our integrity. That work is already under way," she said.
Carrick, from Hertfordshire, will be sentenced by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb in a two-day hearing, beginning today.
The Samaritans is available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or head to the website to find your nearest branch. You matter.
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