London Police Officer Admits to 49 Charges of Sexual Abuse, Including Rape

A London police officer has pleaded guilty to charges of abuse, including rape and sexual assault, against 12 women over nearly two decades, in a harrowing case that intensified scrutiny over misogyny and sexism in the British capital’s police force.

The officer, David Carrick, 48, whose job had included parliamentary and diplomatic protection duties, admitted to 49 charges covering more than 70 instances of serious sexual offending, according to prosecutors and the police. He had already admitted most of the charges at an earlier hearing, but he pleaded guilty in a London court to several more charges on Monday, involving rape and assault.

Given the number of the crimes and the time they spanned — a 17-year period beginning in 2003 — prosecutors called it one of the most significant such cases ever brought, describing the seriousness of the offenses as “a relentless campaign of sexually and mentally abusing women.”

Some of Mr. Carrick’s victims, prosecutors said, had been in relationships with him and had been systematically isolated by him from friends and family before he attacked them; others were women he had met socially but did not know so well, and he used his job as a police officer to charm them and gain their trust.

He called women his “slaves,” according to British news reports, forcing them to change their routines and controlling who they spoke to, what they wore and what they ate. One woman said he locked her in a small cupboard that detectives described as no bigger than a dog crate.

Mr. Carrick was arrested in October 2021, after a woman reported to police in the county of Hertfordshire that he had raped her. The victim decided not to proceed with the allegation, but news of his arrest prompted 12 other women — 13 in all — to come forward with accusations against the officer. Prosecutors said they accepted his not guilty plea in charges relating to one of the women, but that Mr. Carrick admitted to 24 counts of rape, nine counts of sexual assault, and false imprisonment, among others.

The Carrick case came amid a crisis of trust in law enforcement in Britain. Anger had swelled after several high-profile crimes had thrust the culture and standards of London’s force, the Metropolitan Police, into the spotlight. They included the killing of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, by another London police officer in March 2021. After an inquiry by the independent police watchdog, a report released in February 2022 described a “disgraceful” culture of bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment within the force.

The Metropolitan Police on Monday apologized to Mr. Carrick’s victims, calling the officer “a prolific, serial sex offender” who had used his position of authority to control women.

“We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behavior, and because we didn’t, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organization,” Barbara Gray, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said in a statement on Monday. “We are truly sorry that Carrick was able to continue to use his role as a police officer to prolong the suffering of his victims.”

A review of Mr. Carrick’s record after his 2021 arrest had revealed that he was involved in a number of incidents both before and during his time as a police officer, including accusations of harassment and assault, none of which resulted in criminal charges.

Still he successfully passed vetting in 2001 and 2017, and would have been allowed to return to the force after the 2021 allegation was dropped if other women had not come forward. The vetting process is more robust today, the police said. “We are confident that someone applying to join the Met today with the same pre-employment history would not receive vetting clearance.”

The force added that it had set up a team of 50 investigators, among other actions, to review allegations of sexual offenses or domestic abuse levied against current police officers and staff members.

“The issue of consent has been fundamental to this case,” Shilpa Shah, a senior prosecutor, said in the statement on Monday, adding that Mr. Carrick had claimed the acts had been consensual or had not happened at all in interviews with police.

The testimonies of Mr. Carrick’s victims ultimately provided the crucial evidence, Ms. Shah said, commending them for their “tremendous courage.”

Women’s rights groups condemned the case as an disturbing example of a culture of impunity in an authority that should have been held to the highest standards but instead emboldened Mr. Carrick to use his status to abuse women.

“This is an institution in crisis,” said Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, in a statement, calling it a “bleak day for women’s trust and confidence in policing.”

“This isn’t just about individual ‘bad apples’,” she added. “It’s about police leaders taking responsibility for transforming a culture that normalizes and condones misogyny and racism, and enables officers to abuse their power with impunity.”

Though awareness of violence against women had risen in recent years experts said the authorities needed to act systemically to address misogyny.

“We need to have a massive overhaul of laws and policies relating to sexual violence against women,” said Jessica Ringrose, a professor of sociology at University College London and an expert on gender and sexual equity.

Mr. Carrick will be sentenced next month.

He joined the Metropolitan Police in 2001 and began his career as a response officer in London. Later, he transferred to a unit responsible for safeguarding the Houses of Parliament, foreign embassies and government ministers.