A “predatory and controlling” Metropolitan Police officer repeatedly sexually assaulted a 12-year-old as a teenager before confessing in a letter, the Old Bailey has heard.
David Carrick, 50, is accused of abusing the girl over the course of 18 months, allegedly putting his hand over her mouth to stop her letting out a scream.
It is said he confessed to the sexual offending when the girl complained, allegedly writing in a letter that she is “not crazy” and adding: “It was true”.
Carrick, who was once an armed officer in the Met’s elite Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection unit, is already in jail after he admitted a string of sexual offences against women.
He confessed to at least 71 instances of sexual violence against 12 different women, the court heard.
He is now on trial, accused of sexually abusing the girl and – separately - repeatedly raped a woman he was dating, when they were in a “toxic relationship”.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC told jurors the charges that Carrick now faces, and denies, are “not isolated offending”.
“(They are) part of a pattern which the defendant perpetrated over many years”, he said.
“In 2022 and 2023, the defendant pleaded guilty to a large number of sexual and other offences relating to a significant number of other women – nearly all of whom he knew.”
The prosecutor told the jury: “This case that you are now trying is primarily about sexual offending committed many years apart by this defendant.
“But in respect of all of the offending, whenever it was committed, the defendant was, we say, predatory and controlling.”
He said Carrick had spent many years working in the Met, when he was “tasked with enforcing the law rather than committing criminal offences”.
Turning to the allegations of abusing the girl, Mr Little said Carrick – a teenager at the time – carried out the attacks “late at night”.
Jurors heard Carrick allegedly did not speak as he placed the girl’s hand on his genitals, and walked away when she put on the light.
The court heard she claims Carrick escalated the seriousness of the attacks, and sometimes put his hand over her mouth “to prevent her screaming”.
Mr Little said Carrick is accused of sexually assaulting the girl on one occasion when she was “struggling…and trapped between a chair and the sofa”.
He said a letter will form part of the trial evidence, having been recovered from Carrick’s medical records.
“It is signed by ‘Dave’, so the defendant”, said Mr Little.
The note reads that the girl “is not crazy. It was true but I stopped about 4 months ago”.
It goes on: “I promised myself I wouldn’t never go near her again and I have kept that promise and I always will.”
The note adds that the author is “so sorry”, and says the girl “doesn’t have to worry ever again”.
It ends: “Please don’t try to talk about it.”
Mr Little told the court the second alleged victim says Carrick carried out oral and anal rapes, and he would urinate in her mouth which he “enjoyed sexually, even though she did not and it is not something she consented to”.
She says Carrick forced her into sexual activity over the course of five years, and says he would also “get cross” and call her names - “bitch” and “slut” - when she did not spend enough time with him.
Jurors heard the woman says she was persuaded by Carrick into trying anal sex, and she asked him to stop three times when it became painful.
Mr Little said she tried to “wriggle away”, but Carrick “became angry and pinned her down”, holding her by the neck.
“He said words to the effect of ‘you are not going anywhere’”, said the prosecutor. “That was plainly rape.”
The court heard she did not go to police to report the incident at the time.
“Given that he was a Met Police officer, it may be obvious and understandable, you may think, that she took the view that at that point in time, who would believe her?”
Carrick is accused of attacking the woman in 2019 after a falling-out at a restaurant, bringing their relationship to an end.
“He got up and left, and she took the next bus and got home slightly after him”, said Mr Little.
“In the time it took her to go up the stairs, he told her that she had better get naked and get in bed and she responded defiantly.
“They argued, and she started to put her clothes on to leave. They were on the stairs, he grabbed her hair, and tried to pull her down the stairs, she fought back trying to get him off.
“At one stage, she was holding on to the bannister, which got broken. The neighbours came out and separated them and then police arrived.”
The court heard she came forward to police after news broken of Carrick’s convictions for sexual offences against other women.
She gave a detail account to detectives of her claims about Carrick, including an incident when she says he made her apologise for “not obeying him”.
“That tells you everything you need to know about the power dynamic in the relationship and his attitude to women”, suggested Mr Little.
Carrick, who is currently being held at HMP Belmarsh, denies five counts of sexual assault against the girl.
He has also pleaded not guilty to two charges of rape, one of sexual assault and coercive and controlling behaviour towards the woman.
He denied having any sexual contact with the young girl.
When faced with the allegations involving his former partner, Carrick denied urinating on her, pulling her hair, or being controlling or coercive. He says all the sexual contact was consensual.
Mr Little told jurors there are “stark similarities” between the crimes Carrick has already admitted and the new allegations he faces.
He added that Carrick has also previously admitted three other charges of controlling or coercive behaviour towards women - a crime that was only invented in 2015.
“There is hardly a period of time from 2015 onwards that he wasn’t being controlling and coercive with women he was with”, said the prosecutor, turning to Carrick in the dock.
The trial continues.
