Braverman urged to launch full inquiry into Carrick case

Baroness Casey, who is reviewing the culture of the Metropolitan Police, has called for an inquiry and offered to lead it.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman arrives in Downing Street, London, ahead of a Cabinet meeting. Suella Braverman has refused to apologise to a Holocaust survivor who said the Home Secretary’s description of migrants as an “invasion” was akin to language the Nazis used to justify murdering her family. Ms Braverman was confronted by Joan Salter, 83, during a meeting in her Fareham constituency in Hampshire on Friday evening (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

A full inquiry should be held to consider how serial sex offender David Carrick was able to serve as a police officer, Suella Braverman has been told.

Baroness Casey, who is conducting a review of the Metropolitan Police’s standards and internal culture, called for the inquiry in a letter to the Home Secretary.

She suggested the work could be carried out by Dame Elish Angiolini, who is already conducting an inquiry linked to the Met.

Carrick, 48, pleaded guilty to 49 offences relating to 12 women between 2003 and 2020, including 24 counts of rape.

He joined the Met in 2001 before becoming an armed officer with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in 2009.

In her letter to the Home Secretary she said: “I am asking you to consider that the scope of Lady Elish Angiolini’s current non-statutory inquiry should include the conduct of David Carrick and the potential opportunities the Met, other police forces and organisations may have had to identify his pattern of behaviour prior to October 2021, to stop him being a police officer and, ultimately, stop him offending.

“If this is not possible, then I consider this issue so serious that I am willing to volunteer myself to the Metropolitan Police Service to undertake this piece of work.

“We owe it to all his victims that this work takes place.”

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper backed Baroness Casey’s call for an inquiry into David Carrick’s case.

“Louise Casey’s right,” she said.

“There must be a full, urgent review on how serial rapist Carrick could serve as a police officer for so long.”