Detective raped by Carrick urges Met chief resignation

A detective who was raped by former Scotland Yard officer David Carrick has demanded the resignation of the Metropolitan Police chief. Detective Linda Williams, 60, was assaulted by Carrick in 2004 and has reached a settlement with the Met for an undisclosed six-figure sum without the force admitting liability.

In November last year, Carrick was also convicted of molesting a 12-year-old child in the late 1980s and of repeatedly raping and abusing a female ex-partner.

Williams, who has waived her right to anonymity, launched a legal case against the Met for failing to protect her against the serial rapist. She described the handling of her case as “like being raped all over again” and said the process took her back to how she felt when she was raped by Carrick: “controlled, abused and powerless.”

Carrick, now 51, is serving 37 life sentences after attacking more than a dozen women. The former officer’s conduct has been described as a pattern of abuse that spanned many years. Williams has said the way she was treated by the force throughout her legal claim was “devastating” and that it drove her to contemplate suicide. She said: “If I was raped tomorrow, I wouldn’t report it. Both the criminal justice process and the civil process have been so traumatic.”

Background on the Case

Williams brought the civil case against the Met seeking damages on the basis that the force failed to protect her from Carrick and that she felt she had been unable to report the rape. She said the Met’s legal team in the case questioned the severity of her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis.

The Met’s spokesperson later highlighted that Williams’ continued commitment to public service, despite the trauma she endured, was commendable, and noted that throughout subsequent legal proceedings the force had sought to minimise additional distress and re-traumatisation, aiming to handle her claims as quickly and compassionately as possible.

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She alleged it was the “Met’s fault” that she could not report the rape in 2004, and that “little had changed” in the culture since then. She added that the force was “like an episode of Life On Mars” and that she would not have had the backup of her colleagues in dangerous situations.

Met Police Response

A Met spokesperson said, “Serious flaws in the way we approached such investigations at the time meant we did not spot his pattern of abusive behaviour. As a result, we missed opportunities to pursue him through the misconduct process. We deeply regret this.” The spokesperson also recognized the unique and additional impact on Williams, whose exposure to Carrick came as a result of her being a Met officer.

The commissioner has previously met with her in person and spoken to her via email on multiple occasions. He has contacted her to ask whether she would be willing to meet again and discuss these issues further in person.

Call for Resignation

Williams said the Met needed to set up a unit overseen by victims like herself who understood what it is like to be raped. She said: “For this to happen Rowley needs to go and we need a new commissioner.”

She reported the rape in 2021 and has had no relationships since the attack, 22 years ago. In an interview with the BBC she said the PTSD she experienced after the attack was “90% down to the Met police, 10% to Carrick”. Carrick pleaded guilty to 71 sexual offences, including 48 rapes against 12 other women over 17 years, in 2022 and 2023.