A former Metropolitan Police officer held his hand over the mouth of a girl, 12, to “prevent her screaming” as he indecently assaulted her, a court heard.
David Carrick denies sexually abusing the girl on five occasions and later raping a woman whom he is accused of subjecting to coercive and controlling behaviour.
Jurors at the Old Bailey were told that the “predatory and controlling” former police officer was previously convicted in 2022 and 2023 of multiple sexual offences, having admitted to a “large number” of crimes against a “significant number” of women.
In total, he has been convicted of 71 instances of sexual violence against 12 women.
Opening a three-week trial relating to two further victims, prosecutor Tom Little KC said: “This was not in fact isolated offending but part of a pattern which the defendant perpetrated over many years.”
One alleged victim was in year 7 at school when Carrick started abusing her over an 18-month period in the late 1980s, it is alleged.
She described Carrick as “very controlling” and “nasty”. In a pre-recorded video interview played to the court, she said she “lived in fear” after the sexual assaults began.
She said the incidents left her in shock, adding: “I didn’t understand it. I was quite naive at 12.”
Aged 14, she eventually told her mother what was happening and was taken to the GP, who referred her to a psychologist, but it was “just brushed under the carpet like it was nothing”, she told the court.
A letter signed “Dave”, recovered from Carrick’s medical records, was read to the jury. In it, he said the alleged victim was “not crazy” and her claims were “true”.
He wrote: “I know how [the girl] must feel. That’s why I stopped and promised I would never go near her again and I have kept that promise and I always will.”
He offered to go away and never be seen again, adding: “Sorry to you and especially sorry to [the girl] but she does not have to worry ever again. Please do not try to talk about it.”
He is further accused of raping a woman he met through a dating app more than 20 years later, between December 2014 and April 2015.
Jurors were told they were both in bed when Carrick told her he wanted to try sex, to which she reluctantly agreed.
She then told him she wanted to stop three times. However, when she managed to move away, he “became angry and pinned her down”.
“He said words to the effect of ‘you are not going anywhere’,” Mr Little told the court, adding this was “plainly an offence of rape”.
The victim did not tell anyone and feared she would not be believed because he was a police officer, the court heard.
“Given he was a Met Police officer, it may be obvious and understandable, you may think, that she took the view, particularly at that point in time, that she would not be believed,” Mr Little added. “Who would have believed her?”
The prosecutor said Carrick could be charming “when required”. But on another occasion in 2019, he urinated on the woman and in her mouth without her consent, it is alleged.
When she started screaming and crying, Carrick locked her outside and made her apologise for “not obeying him” before he would let her back in, Mr Little said.
“It is to be noted that there are a number of stark similarities between the conduct that she alleges and that upon which he was previously prosecuted and pleaded guilty in 2022 and 2023,” the prosecutor added.
Mr Little told the jury had Carrick’s previous convictions include rape and urinating in the mouths of other women.
The former officer is also accused of forcing the woman to perform a sex act on him on at least three occasions, the court heard.
Carrick, who appeared in the dock wearing a black suit and tie, has denied five counts of sexual assault relating to the girl in 1989 and 1990.
He has pleaded not guilty to two charges of rape, one of sexual assault and coercive and controlling behaviour towards the woman between 2014 and 2019.
The trial continues.
