Women have described in court how they were violently raped, controlled and degraded by an “evil” Metropolitan Police officer who they feared was too “powerful” to be reported for his crimes.

David Carrick was branded a “monster” who carried out a “catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences” when he appeared at London’s Southwark Crown Court, where he is being sentenced for dozens of crimes against 12 women.

The 48-year-old has previously pleaded guilty to 49 charges – including 24 counts of rape – as he was unmasked as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.

Read updates from court as they happened

On Monday, the court was told that Carrick held a gun to the head of one woman before repeatedly raping her and threatened to use his police baton on another victim.

He also sent a victim a photograph of himself with a work-issue firearm, saying: “Remember I am the boss.”

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David Carrick’s victim speaks out

Prosecutor Tom Little KC said Carrick – who was sacked by the Met Police after his guilty pleas – should face a life sentence for his crimes but the case “falls short of meriting” a whole-life order.

He said Carrick’s offences over a 17-year period increased in “frequency” and in “the level of humiliation being inflicted”.

“The reality was that it did not matter who the victim was … he would rape them, sexually abuse or assault them and humiliate them,” the prosecutor said.

Read more:
Police officer tells of rape by David Carrick
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The court heard one victim – Darciane Nunes Da Silva – who was raped and sexually assaulted by Carrick had waived her right to anonymity.

In a series of victim impact statements read by the prosecutor, women spoke of the trauma they had suffered from Carrick’s crimes – including some who were left suicidal – and how the case had damaged their trust in police.

“I don’t trust the police any more,” one woman said. “If anything went wrong I don’t know whether I would want to call the police as I’d worry that they would send a male officer like him.

“The thought of being alone with a male officer makes me very anxious.”

‘Encountered evil’

Another victim said she had been “too frightened” to report Carrick’s crimes after he told her “he was the police, he was the law, and he owned me”.

Meanwhile, a woman who was raped in Carrick’s home after he pointed a gun at her head said she felt she had “encountered evil”.

She told the court: “I distinctively remember his words – ‘come on, you can trust me, I am the safest person you can be around, I am a police officer’.

“I honestly thought he was going to kill me that night, I thought he was going to rape me and kill me and that my life would be over.”

The court heard Carrick relied on his “charm” to “beguile and mislead” his victims, then used his “power and control” to stop them leaving or reporting him.

Some women were urinated on, locked naked in a cupboard under the stairs in Carrick’s home, whipped and watched remotely through cameras while he was at work.

One victim described Carrick as “acting like a monster” and said he would call her “his slave”, asking her to take her clothes off while cleaning his house.

Carrick told another victim he would pay her £1,000 a month to be his “slut”, the court heard.

One woman who was repeatedly raped by Carrick told a friend that “nobody would believe her” if she reported the attacks because he “was a police officer and very powerful”.

‘He cannot ask for mercy’

Alisdair Williamson KC, defending, said Carrick “accepts fully responsibility for what he has done” and that it is likely any life sentence will “bring him close to, if not to, the close of his natural life”.

He added that one victim had noted that “something had profoundly damaged this man” and Carrick was “testament” to how “the abused” can become “the abuser”.

“He cannot ask for mercy and does not,” the barrister said.

All of Carrick’s admitted crimes occurred while he was working for the Met Police.

He joined the force in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command in 2009, guarding the Houses of Parliament and embassy sites, and was known to colleagues as “Bastard Dave”.

The Met was forced to apologise and admit Carrick should have been rooted out earlier after it emerged he came to police attention over nine incidents before he was prosecuted.

They included allegations of rape, domestic violence and harassment between 2000 and 2021.

The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, is expected to sentence Carrick on Tuesday.