Carrick, who served as an armed officer in the Met, was jailed in 2023
A Metropolitan Police detective who was raped by former Scotland Yard officer David Carrick has called for commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to resign, saying the force’s handling of her subsequent legal battle was “like being raped all over again”.Detective Constable Linda Williams, 60, was attacked by Carrick in 2004. She later brought a civil claim against the Metropolitan Police for failing to protect her from the serial sex offender. The case has now been settled for an undisclosed six-figure sum, with the force paying compensation without admitting liability, The Guardian reported.Williams told the BBC that the lengthy legal proceedings had been “horrific” and left her contemplating suicide.
She said the “worst thing” was that lawyers representing the Met challenged the severity of her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), arguing that she had been raped only once.“They used the fact that I just got on with my life as best I could after the rape against me,” she said, adding that her ability to continue performing well at work was cited as evidence that she had shown no signs of psychological trauma.Carrick, who served as an armed officer in the Met, was jailed in 2023 after admitting to 71 sexual offences, including 48 rapes involving 12 women.
He is serving 37 life sentences. He was later convicted of further offences involving a child and a former partner.Williams reported the rape in 2021 after seeing media coverage of Carrick being charged with attacking another woman. Hertfordshire Police investigated the case and brought him to justice.In an unprecedented move for a serving officer, Williams has publicly demanded Rowley’s resignation, saying she believes little has changed in the force’s culture and that she no longer trusts the police to handle sexual violence cases appropriately.“If I was raped tomorrow, I wouldn’t report it,” she told The Guardian, citing what she described as a complete lack of empathy and support from the police.Rowley took charge of the Met in 2022, pledging to reform the force following a series of scandals, including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer. A report by Baroness Casey in 2023 described the force as institutionally misogynistic.A Met spokesperson said serious flaws in the force’s handling of investigations had meant officers failed to identify Carrick’s pattern of abusive behaviour. The force said it regretted the failures and had sought to handle Williams’ claim as quickly and compassionately as possible.