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UK police reviewing cases after officer’s serial rape plea

Published:Tuesday | January 17, 2023 | 9:47 PM
This is an undated handout photo issued by Hertfordshire Police of serving Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick. Carrick on Monday, January 16, 2023, admitted to multiple counts of rape and sexual assaults on a dozen women over almost two decades. Carrick, 48, pleaded guilty to 49 offences, including some 20 counts of rape as well as assault, attempted rape and false imprisonment. (Hertfordshire Police via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Metropolitan Police said Tuesday it was reviewing more than 1,600 cases of alleged sexual offences and domestic abuse involving its staff after it emerged that a London police officer who was a serial rapist managed to stay in his job for two decades.

David Carrick, 48, pleaded guilty Monday to 49 criminal charges, including 24 counts of rape against 12 women over 18 years.

Authorities said Carrick was the subject of multiple complaints throughout his career from 2001, but he was only suspended from duty in 2021 when he was arrested for rape.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley acknowledged that Carrick's continued employment was a “spectacular failure” of the London department.

“You can't say anything else; it absolutely is,” Rowley told the BBC.

“This is about weak decision-making in professional standards, not joining the dots between related incidents and poor policies, and that all comes together to mean he was a police officer for 20 years and for a large part of this he was a predatory rapist.”

The Metropolitan Police is Britain's largest police force.

It said Tuesday it was reviewing allegations of domestic abuse or sexual offences against officers or other employees from the past 10 years to ensure the correct actions were taken.

It estimated there were 1,633 cases involving 1,071 staff members to consider.

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